First things first. Graham Potter is uneasy thinking about playing football amid the “horrendous situation” of the Covid-19 crisis.

He is not the only one, of course.

He is probably among an overwhelming majority who think that way.

Still, there will come a time when something close to normal life resumes.

When people return to work and school, when pubs and cafes re-open, when you can go out for a meal or to see a film or do some non-essential shopping, when holiday companies get back into full swing.

All those industries are trying to plan how that return will take shape.

In the case of football, it is almost certain to be in near-empty stadia.

Potter is confident there would still be such a thing as home advantage, were that to be the case.

He said: “You still have an advantage because you’re familiar with the surroundings.

“It’s your pitch, it’s your home. That’s still there.

“But you do lose the involvement of the crowd because they aren’t there.

“I think everybody would say ideally what we would like is to play in front of people.

“But the circumstances mean that we have to do what we have to do.

“It’s one of those things that we have to get on with and deal with as best we can. It will be interesting to see how it goes.”

It is perhaps ironic to focus on the lack of crowd in a season when Albion’s home support has come in for criticism from some for being too negative at times.

But the fans will be missed if they are not there.

Asked whether Albion could fill the empty seats with mannequins, Potter replied: “As long as they aren’t shouting abuse at me, I don’t mind!

“But no, to be honest you can’t replace that.

“There are 30,000 people at the Amex and if you take them away it’s a completely different situation and you can’t replace it.

“That’s why the Premier League is so fantastic because the crowd can flip the game.

“I remember the Everton game at home. We’re down in the scoreline, we get a penalty and all of a sudden the crowd get behind the game.

“The momentum switches. Without the crowd, maybe that’s not so easy to happen.

“It’s not something that we really want but we know that it’s probably going to happen and we have to accept it and deal with it as best we can.”