THE man who spotted the potential of new Saints goalscoring hero Dexter Blackstock when he was just eight has described the Carling Cup star as a "phenomenon."

Blackstock was picked out as a possible future ace a decade ago while playing for his local youth side on the tough Blackbird Leys estate in Oxford by Saints head of recruitment Malcolm Elias.

Elias, above, signed Blackstock for local club Oxford United and watched him score goals "for fun" while progressing through the League Two outfit's youth teams.

And Elias' subsequent move to Saints put them in pole position to sign Blackstock ahead of a number of Premiership giants just over a year ago. Manchester United and Liverpool were both "monitoring the situation very closely" with Arsenal and Newcastle also interested in the youngster who bagged the first-ever hat-trick by a Saints sub against Colchester two days ago.

And moneybags Chelsea were very keen - but their top management's willingness to buy global rather than look closer to home for young talent cost them the chance to sign Blackstock.

"I know Chelsea's chief scout was interested but the club preferred to spend £10m on a striker rather than £100,000 on a youngster for the future.

"So we had massive competition in a bid to sign him - half the Premiership were interested - but the fact I had known Dexter's parents since he was eight was a big help."

Elias added: "Dexter has always scored goals.

"He won't be surprised at scoring in midweek - knowing him he will probably have been disappointed to have played two Premiership games and not scored, that's not the ratio he's used to! He will now be thinking about when his next hat-trick for the club will come."

"I've been told the goals he scored against Colchester were real striker's goals - that's the goals Dexter has been scoring since he was eight.

"He's never afraid to miss, there's no fear factor with him

"If he misses two or three chances he still gets himself in a position to score.

"That's just his natural ability and instinct to score goals.

"It's the same as Michael Owen - look at the nightmare time he had been having but he's had a great week at Real Madrid. He will always score goals because he gets himself in good positions.

"And that's the phenomenon which is Dexter Blackstock.

"He has that instinct, that calmness in front of goal to be in the right place at the right time.

"It's early days yet but I'm convinced there's a lot more to come from Dexter yet. You have to remember that he's not had a pre-season with us yet - he didn't have one last year and he didn't really have one this season as he was injured."

Head coach Steve Wigley is likely to hand Blackstock his third successive Premiership start at Highbury tomorrow as Saints bid to end their 397-minute league goal famine.

Blackstock should partner Brett Ormerod with Leon Best on the bench as Kevin Phillips (calf injury) will now not be ready to play until the West Brom match a week tomorrow.

Referring to Blackstock, Wigley said: "We needed him at half-time on Wednesday - but I was as pleased with his two performances against Everton and Birmingham as I was on Wednesday.

"I didn't start him because to start him and then expect him to perform at Arsenal would be a tough order.

"He did well in both the other games but didn't get many chances.

"He's an improving striker, an old-fashioned centre forward, and he's only 18. We have to make sure we keep working with him and don't get sidetracked by the fact he's in and around the first team at the minute with games coming thick and fast.

"But I feel through someone else's misfortune someone's opportunity comes and that's what has happened with Dexter.

"In an ideal world he would have been embedded into the team after Christmas and we would have drip fed him in, but with four strikers out right now he has an opportunity and he's taking it."

Fabrice Fernandes and Rory Delap face late fitness tests tomorrow while Graeme Le Saux will see a specialist next week if his knee injury doesn't heal.

But, right now, all the attention is heaped on Blackstock.

"When we put him in for his first game against Everton we never quite knew how he would react, but he dealt with it," said Wigley

"He got me out of jail at half-time on Wednesday and I'm sure they won't be his last goals for the club."