'The Professor' hails his star student

Jones' treble gets the Harry and Clive show up and running. Ronald Atkin reports from St Mary's

Sir Clive Woodward will not have minded the Southampton crowd's good-natured chant of "Who are yer?" which greeted him before the start of the Ted Bates Trophy match against Anderlecht yesterday. Both Woodward, who claims his seat is in the back of the vehicle, and Harry Redknapp, very much the man in the trenches, will have enjoyed the potential of Kenwyne Jones, a 20-year-old graduate of the youth system.

Jones, already a Trinidad international, won the game, and the plaudits, with his hat-trick and as Redknapp said: "He has got something to offer, for sure." Last season he started just one game, but scored seven in nine games on loan at Sheffield Wednesday. With other kids like the quickfire Theo Walcott coming through, there seems plenty for Redknapp and Woodward to work their magic on.

Southampton's top-level mix of the Toff, the Prof and the Old Pro promises an interesting, and possibly combustible, season. Chairman Rupert Lowe, who has run the club since 1997, is a Gloucestershire landowner and was instrumental in recruiting the professorial Woodward, on whose cv is indelibly inked a Rugby World Cup win with England in 2003, as well as a less than acclaimed Lions tour of New Zealand. As someone who has witnessed everything, Redknapp possesses sensitive antennae, and when he detected bad vibes over the appointment at Portsmouth of Velimir Zajec last season as executive director, he moved along the South Coast to St Mary's Stadium. Harry has attempted to maintain a straight face and straight bat over the arrival of Woodward, not always successfully. While insisting Woodward's appointment as technical director was "not a problem" for him personally, he did concede: "It is unusual, to say the least." In yesterday's programme, Redknapp's welcome for Sir Clive was a touch restrained: "If he can bring in some useful ideas that will help us, that is fine by me."

Woodward's programme piece was at pains to acknowledge that Redknapp is boss: "I will be working for Harry and Huw Jennings, the Academy manager. I will just sit back and watch, listen and learn. I won't do anything without the approval of the manager. Throughout the negotiations I made it very clear I would not come here if the manager did not want me. I have a lot to learn and I am looking forward to working for him. I am certainly not here to undermine him."

Sir Clive - and the Toff - think he can help lift the Saints by his work behind the scenes, particularly with the players who reached the Youth Cup final last season, in improving fitness and skill levels, an area which strays dangerously close to the waters patrolled by Redknapp and his coaching staff of Dave Bassett, Kevin Bond and Dennis Rofe.

No problem, claims Woodward. "Harry is keen for me to help him, but he is the boss. He is in charge and I won't do anything unless he agrees it. I pride myself on being a good team member and I will do what he asks, so I can't see there being any issues."

Having lost virtually his entire strike force and quite a few others, Redknapp has so far managed to bring in only three free transfers, one of them the 38-year-old Dennis Wise. The 32-year-old central defender Tomasz Hajto, who has won 62 caps for Poland, arrived from Nuremburg and started against Anderlecht, while the other, Darren Powell, came on when Darren Kenton was forced off by injury after 25 minutes. There was, however, no sign of Wise.

"We need to get two or three more in," said Redknapp. "I'm trying my best, but it isn't easy. If we can't find the right ones I won't bother." If there are more like Jones on the way up, it might not be necessary.

Anderlecht, last season's Belgian League runners-up, made a bright start when the Polish full-back, Michal Zewlakow, converted a sixth-minute penalty. Paul Smith, in goal instead of Antti Niemi, absent because of what Redknapp called "a few personal problems", came close to stopping the low shot just inside a post.

Anderlecht's advantage looked shaky when the white-booted Jones, ran at them with power and pace. After 29 minutes he hared after a long upfield ball and cleverly chipped his shot over the advancing Belgian keeper, Silvio Proto.

A second goal to Jones soon followed when a poorly judged back-pass by the on-trial defender named in the team list as Nikos Ntampizas, but better known in these parts as the former Newcastle Greek stalwart Nikos Dabizas, let Jones in to round Proto and sidefoot home. Southampton's lead lasted until a minute from the interval, when a Goran Lovre shot was deflected past Smith.

Jones's third goal, three minutes into the second half, was also calmly driven in from around the penalty spot as he collected Brett Ormerod's cut-back.