Debut For Nathan?

What was it that the pundits used to say? If you're old enough, you're good enough. No, that wasn't it. If you're good enough, you're old enough, that was it.

So, perhaps its time to see how good is our 19 year-old left-back Nathan Ashton by playing him in the game on Saturday. An alarming absence of left-backs, with the invisible Cory Gibbs and the hapless Djimi Traore both out injured while the Herminator is still banned for 2 more games after his sending-off against Bolton leaves us with surely no other choice. Unless we can persuade Watford to give us Chrissie Powell back on loan that is, why did he ever go ( and Chris Perry, come to think of it ).

Well, the other possibility and the easy option for Monica would be to switch Luke Young to left-back, where he played for the last half-an-hour against Chelski after Traore went off. This would, of course, leave us naked in midfield with Kish at right-back and Faye at central defence. Oh, dear, I can feel my migraine returning.

To remind everyone, Nathan Ashton is an England Under 19 international that played 17 Reserve appearances last season and was given plenty of experience during the pre-season games. He played 360 minutes during pre-season at left-back, a total bettered only in defence by the Herminator and Luke Young. He played against all the top teams that we encountered, Utrecht, Germinal, New Zealand, Valencia, Hibs and Millwall playing the full match against both Valencia and New Zealand.

Go on, give him a chance..