Pompey were defeated by the Black Cats at the Stadium of Light with the Fratton Park faithful making a 660-mile round trip to attend the Black Cats game.
Portsmouth goalkeeper Craig MacGillivray has taken to Twitter to congratulate the travelling Pompey faithful for their efforts in making their way to Sunderland for an early Saturday kickoff in League One.
As away days go, Portsmouth away at Sunderland is one of the most arduous in terms of distance and travelling time, but with kickoff moved forward to 12:30pm from 3pm, it means Pompey fans had to set off at 2am for the 660-mile round trip (The News).
An impressive 874 made the trek from the south coast to the north-east of England for the game at the Stadium of Light, watching their team take the lead against the Black Cats but eventually succumbing to a 2-1 defeat.
Nonetheless, Portsmouth paid tribute to those fans on their feed and MacGillivray followed suit on his Twitter account:
During the game, Marcus Harness’s 22nd-minute opener was cancelled out by Jordan Willis and Chris Maguire goals, and closest Pompey came to a second-half equaliser was when Grant Leadbitter nearly headed past his own goalkeeper with 10 minutes to go.
In the end, Kenny Jackett’s charges could not come back against a side they were facing for a sixth time in under a year, and slipped to a second defeat in three games in what has been a tricky start in their push for promotion, though they have a chance to put it right fairly swiftly when they host Coventry City at Fratton Park on Tuesday night.
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