Nathan Eccleston is looking more and more the business. The 16-year-old Manchester product netted three more goals today in the U18s 5-0 annihilation of West Brom. The same West Brom that held them scoreless just a month-and-half ago. That brings the young striker's tally to 15 in 16 matches. Did I mention that in three of those matches he played less than a total of 120 minutes?

Paul Anderson is expected to be back on the pitch for Swansea today when the Swans take on Northampton in a League One fixture. The 19-year-old winger suffered a slight knock on the knee against Hartlepool last Tuesday and missed his club's FA Cup draw at Horsham last Friday. The Swans still sit atop the League One table though by game-in-hand, Nottingham Forest could overtake them with just a draw and Carlisle United both could surpass them with a win.

Krisztián Németh netted a pair for the second straight contest as the Reserves took the mini-derby, three to nil, at Halliwell Jones. It also saw the return of 19-year-old Spanish midfielder Francisco Durán, who came on in the 76th minute after being out for nine months with a knee injury. Leto was apparently quiet throughout, but Nabil El Zhar garnered Man of the Match honors from the official site.

The U18s began their double defence of the FA Youth Cup with a resounding 5-0 shellacking of Wycombe. The Wanderers were undefeated in thirteen contests coming in while racking up a ridiculous +27 goal difference. Though they managed to hold our boys for the first half, an explosion of goals in the second, led by a brace from Nathan Eccleston, crushed the young Chairboys' hopes and dreams of the upset.

Paul Anderson didn't travel with the Swans this evening as the club headed to Atspeed Stadium to take on Horsham in second round FA Cup action. His injury is now being described as 'dead leg', which for some reason conjures images of Peter Jackson's Braindead. I'll let you work that one out. Anyhow, Swansea's next match is a League One tie Tuesday at home against Northampton, hopefully Anderson will make his return then and there'll be no zombie babies in the crowd.

Robbie Threlfall got injured, Ryan Flynn absent, Godwin Antwi played, but his side lost, Craig Lindfield forgotten as Notts County suffered an FA Cup embarassment, and Adam Hammill barely got on the pitch as his side won.
In a face-off of two clubs with Liverpool kids on-loan, Hereford United beat Hartlepool United, 2-0, in second round FA Cup proper.

Word out of Southampton is that the Saints might have to sell some top players in January due to financial difficulties. Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC, the parent company that owns the club in principal, released a statement that hinted at such moves. Apparently the board has decided to reject the proposal from Sisu Capital to purchase the club at 20% of the stock value.

In League One action today, Hartlepool travel to the Liberty to take on Paul Anderson and the Swans. Godwin Antwi is on-loan to the Monkey Hangers and though he played the full ninety on Saturday, his inclusion in the starting XI is nothing definite. The 2-1 loss at Gillingham was the first time in over a month that the Ghanaian-Spanish centre back/defensive midfielder has played in a League One match for Hartlepool in over a month.

The news out of Swansea is that Paul Anderson had to leave the match with Hartlepool United today in the 53rd minute due to a knee injury. No word on the extent of the knock as of yet, but he was able to 'limp off' the pitch. Despite losing the speedy, young winger, the Swans were able to win 1-0 on an 82nd minute strike from Spanish defender Angel Rangel.