The Latvians are coming! Saints striker Marian Pahars will be the star attraction when his national side arrive next week for a two-game tour in England.

Latvia will play two friendlies, first at Ipswich on Friday, November 12, and then at Derby the following Tuesday.

Saints boss Dave Jones will allow his star striker to play 45 minutes but prospective signing Imants Bleidilis looks likely to be ruled out by red tape.

Saints have applied for a work permit for the right winger who will now be barred from entering the country until the Department of Employment has adjudicated on his case.

The tour has come about through the stunning success of Pahars with Saints which has heightened awareness of Latvian football in this country.

Southampton have built a close relationship with Skonto Riga, Pahars's former club, who all but clinched the Latvian title with a 3-0 win over Metalurgs at the weekend.

Although Bleidilis did not score he was the star of the show to help Skonto race three up by half-time. They now need one point from their two remaining games to be champions again.

Inevitably Southampton were the Latvians' first choice for a friendly but the club turned down the offer because no suitable date could be found.

Pahars joked: "It is just as well - I would not know who to play for! But it will be good to join up with the other lads. It will be very good experience for them to play against Ipswich and Derby and will certainly make them better players.

"And it will be a chance for them to catch someone's eye. If they do well, why shouldn't they come here to play too That would be good for the Latvian national side for the next World Cup."

Pahars expects to be fit for Saturday's trip to Aston Villa. After surviving all that Wimbledon threw at him, he revealed he was actually forced off by a kick on the ankle . . . by teammate Mark Hughes.

Hughes was today expected to be formally interviewed for the Welsh manager's job which is his for the taking. The only sticking point is that the Welsh FA want him to do the job full-time while Hughes would ideally like to continue playing.

Patrick Colleter and James Beattie have been left out of tonight's reserve game at home to Leicester (Staplewood, 7.30) to protect them for Saturday's trip to Aston Villa.

Saints Reserves: Moss, Hiley, Almeida, Monk, Bridge, Baird, Gibbens, Howells, Ashford, Rodrigues, Wallace. Subs: Bevan, Collins, Leal, Huxley, M Davies.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.