FORMER Norwich star Darren Kenton is putting his childhood alliances behind him for tomorrow's crunch clash at Carrow Road.
Kenton joined the Canaries at the age of 12 and remained at the club right up until May 2003, when he joined Saints on a Bosman free transfer. He made 174 league and cup appearances following his debut in 1996.
But the versatile defender, who successfully switched from right back to centre-half during last week's win over Portsmouth, will be putting friendships to one side tomorrow.
He said: "I still keep an eye out for their results as I've still got a lot of mates there and I'd like them to do well - apart form tomorrow.
"When I was there, scoring goals was the problem. We could keep clean sheets but had a problem scoring.
"Now they've come up and got players like Leon McKenzie and Darren Huckerby, who are players who can score.
"Huckerby in particular is a quality player and a great finisher. He's been a bit unfortunate in his career but is proving himself now.
"I hope I'll get a good reception. I was there from the age of 12, so if I get booed I won't be too happy!"
Norwich could well be without England keeper Robert Green (dead leg) and Kenton feels that will be a massive blow.
Having known Green for many years, Kenton said he believed Green would go on to gain full international honours - even when the two of them were in the youth team together.
"Robert is a quality keeper and I always said, going right back to the early days, if he carried on progressing like he was, he could end up playing for England.
"When he first started out, he was a bit nervous and didn't really command his area, but now he does - and he's loud and rushes out as well."
Whatever the result at Carrow Road, he won't be hanging around to celebrate or commiserate in East Anglia.
"If you look at some of their games - they drew 2-2 with Newcastle and lost to Manches-ter United but only just," he added.
"They are a tough team to play against. Nigel Worthington is all about hard work and they have players like Damien Francis, who are real hard workers in midfield.
"I'm still quite friendly with quite a few of them - apart from Robert Green, I've known Adam Drury since I was 12 and I played with Phil Mulryne and Paul McVeigh for a few years as well.
"They haven't been winding me up - but they have phoned to see if I'm coming out for a night out afterwards.
"But I told them it's too long a drive on a Sunday, so I'll just go home with the team on Saturday night."
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