Brett Pitman is looking forward to running out of the tunnel at Wembley in front of more than 80,000 supporters.
Both Pompey and Sunderland supporters quickly snapped up their full allocation of tickets for Sunday’s Checkatrade Trophy final.
It means that the competition – including all its previous guises – is set for a highest ever attendance.
But Pitman is not interested in just having a nice day out in his first ever working trip to the national stadium.
The Blues skipper knows that he will only truly be able to enjoy the afternoon if his side emerge victorious.
He said: “I’ve never played there, but I went to watch Tottenham play Barcelona earlier in the season and I’ve been to a couple of NFL games.
“It’s obviously exciting, but it will only turn out to be a good day if we get the win – it’s never nice to be on the other side.
“Sunderland are a top team with plenty of quality players running right the way through their squad, so it will be tough.
"It’s obviously exciting, but it will only turn out to be a good day if we get the win."
“All players want to perform in front of huge crowds and for the organisers of the competition, it’s probably the best they could have hoped for.
“The number of tickets that we sold in such a short space of time is very impressive, although not particularly surprising.
“With the amount of fans who travel such long distances to back us in league games, it’s something that we’re used to.
“Obviously having more than 40,000 of them will be a bit different and it’s a fantastic level of support that we’re grateful for.”