Albion fans have been looking forward to the home game with Portsmouth since the summer.

I only wish it was a game that will feature regularly on the fixture lists over the next few years.

Pompey first. They have drawn a lot of games recently and got a taste of what it might be like in the big time when they got well beaten up at Old Trafford last weekend, but I think they will go up automatically.

They are one of the few First Division sides who have invested in their squad this season. It helps when you have a chairman prepared to lay out a few bob on players so fair play to Milan Mandaric.

But the money still has to be spent wisely and you have to say that Harry Redknapp and Jim Smith have done just that.

There's some decent experience in there like Paul Merson and Todorov, a forward who didn't make it at West Ham but who has scored regularly for them this season.

Matthew Taylor, who they signed from Luton, is earning some great reviews and is destined for better things. They play some lovely football and it would be astonishing to me if they 'did a Wolves' and ended up missing out.

Leicester look strong as well and it wouldn't surprise me if they went up as champions.

They don't have as much flair as Pompey, but they are organised, big and strong and highly motivated. Micky Adams is an exceptional manager, as Brighton fans know, and he deserves to pit his wits on the biggest stage of all.

What about the Albion? I still believe the key to their survival hopes is making Withdean more of a fortress.

They've got ten home games left and if they could win six or seven of them then they would still have a chance of climbing out of the bottom three because I think a team with fewer than 50 points, the usual benchmark for safety, will still have a chance of staying up.

I wonder how crucial those last three games against Sheffield Wednesday, Watford and Grimsby are going to be?

Good to see Paul Kitson back in the reserves. When he's fully fit Paul will score goals as he's proved at the highest level with West Ham and Newcastle. If he could get, say, half a dozen between now and the end of the season there's no telling how important they could be.

The play-off battle looks interesting. None of the sides, with the possible exception of Sheffield United, are playing with the consistency which makes them certs.

Of the contenders, the side which has impressed me most is Nottingham Forest. They play some lovely stuff and look out for their young defender Michael Dawson. He has already trained with the full England squad and he is a star of the future.

Norwich don't seem to be able to pick up results away from home and Nigel Worthington, my old Northern Ireland team-mate, will be concerned that they have started dropping points against sides like Albion and Grimsby who, with all respect, they should be beating.

Coventry, Watford and Wolves will all be in the shake-up and watch out for Ipswich. All season people have been saying that they are capable of putting a long unbeaten run together and it looks like it's now happening.

Even if they finish sixth I can see them doing what Birmingham did last season and going all the way.

I don't' want to make you too jealous, but I'm composing my column this week in Dubai where I'm enjoying a mini-break and the temperature is nudging 80 degrees. Very nice it is, too.

Meanwhile, back home the country is in winter's icy grip.

You can probably guess where I'm going here. I can't understand why the football authorities back home don't bring in a winter break.

The managers want it and, after playing five games in a fortnight over the holiday period believe me, the players want it as well.

When I played Christmas and New Year was an absolute killer. Remember in those days we didn't have the strength in depth to be able to rest certain players. By the time we got round to third round day in the FA Cup we were all knackered. The standard of the product suffered then and it's the same now.

I know football at holiday time is popular, but why not have a shutdown for two or three weeks after the traditional Boxing Day fixture?

It happens all over Europe. They were back in action in the Spanish League after a fortnight off last weekend and the ten games produced 39 goals, some of them absolute crackers. It's more than a coincidence that we had the best weekend of action of the season in La Liga immediately after the players returned refreshed after their mini-break.

It could have other benefits at home as well, not least the opportunity for clubs to get their pitches back in the best possible condition.

I'm sure the fans would get used to it and it would just whet the appetite for the resumption in the fixtures.

And you can make up the games at the beginning and end of the season where the interest level is usually higher and conditions are so much more comfortable for players and supporters.

It must have been a hard call for Farnborough to decide whether to stage their FA Cup tie with Arsenal at home or not. They've opted to switch it to Highbury and in my opinion that's the wrong decision.

They forfeited the money they would have got from Sky to televise the game live, but more importantly any chance they had of actually winning the match has gone out the window.

Okay it was a slim chance but, having played as a pro on non-league grounds before and then managed at non-league level, I know the Arsenal players wouldn't have fancied it much. Tiny dressing rooms, a bumpy pitch, crowd on top of you. Look what happened to Everton on Saturday and you can't tell me that Farnborough aren't a lot worse than Shrewsbury.

I know it makes sense to switch to Highbury. More Farnborough fans will be able to see it, the gate receipts will be huge and the players, hand on heart, would probably prefer to play there.

But for me it's another example of the romance disappearing from the FA Cup. There's the Farnborough situation while Shrewsbury were disappointed they hadn't been drawn away to Chelsea in the fourth round because they would have made more money if the game was at Stamford Bridge.

The next thing will be clubs automatically having the option of switching to their opponents ground if they are drawn at home to a Premiership club!