For those of us who can't get to Walsall, next Tuesday's rearranged game against Wimbledon is a welcome break from too many Saturdays without a trip to Withdean.

Since Portsmouth paid us a visit, a rather empty fixture list compromised the way weekends were spent and threatened to introduce "domesticity" of the home improvement kind round here.

So it's a tad ironic that Wimbledon's own "home improvement" plans are likely to release more tickets to Albion fans on Tuesday.

The team formerly known as the Dons can only count on a handful of supporters at Selhurst Park and a Tuesday night at Withdean is likely to attract little more than One Man and His Dog.

Although his dog would probably prefer to stay at home in the warm, dreaming doggie-dreams about biting Charles Koppel and his chums who have finally got permission to play at Milton Keynes Hockey Club.

Now if this move was a temporary measure it would be bad enough. We know what it is like to be a club in exile and it is still a measure of the commitment of Brighton fans that they travelled to Gillingham in such numbers for two seasons.

However, what kept most of us going was the knowledge that, someday, we would be going back to Brighton and, though I would never describe the Priestfield Stadium as a place that felt like home, the local people were incredibly welcoming on those Saturdays when that small corner of the Medway Towns was Brighton through and through.

What those friendly Gillingham people did not do, however, was embrace the Albion so totally that they switched their allegiance from other teams.

That the Wimbledon board think this will happen in Milton Keynes is just one of the fundamental flaws in a plan that sets a dangerous precedent for the future of the game.

Add a sublime, or possibly wilful, refusal to acknowledge or understand that football fans are driven by intangible things like passion, which can't be invented where it doesn't exist, and it is no surprise that this once proud team now turn out in front of a crowd where the stewards and hot dog sellers outnumber the fans.

The planned Wimbledon move comes at a very bad time for the Albion as the public inquiry into the Falmer Stadium application starts on February 25.

The anti-Falmer brigade is very keen on pointing out that they do not oppose the stadium as such, they just think it should be somewhere else.

Their stereotypical NIMBY response does not cut much ice since all evidence suggests that the villagers would fight against anything planned within throwing distance of their duck pond.

Add to this their reluctance to accept that the 21st Century is alive and kicking all around them and you have got some fairly predictable opposition.

Opposition, however, who are almost certainly going to seize on the Wimbledon issue to try and convince the Secretary of State that if there are no alternative sites in this particular city, another city would do just as well.

Except that it would not. Because football teams need a home and homes are not built on the basis of convenient arrangements that benefit businessmen and local authorities keen to deliver "regeneration" or "urban renaissance".

The Falmer campaign is now entering a really crucial stage. While the idea of sitting through something that sounds (and, in parts, probably will be) as desperately dull as a public inquiry might not have instant appeal, the sight of a blue and white public gallery could be very appealing to the decision-makers. So if you want to help with the Final Push for Falmer, come along to an evening meeting at the Concorde on Monday February, 10, to hear more.

Roz South edits Brighton Rockz fanzine. Email roz@southspark.co.uk