Trond Soltvedt is preparing to be a pain in the neck for quirky Wimbledon boss Egil Olsen tomorrow as Saints travel to Selhurst Park.

Having played four times under Olsen for the Norwegian national side, Soltvedt knows he could spend much of tomorrow's game watching the ball sail over his head in midfield.

The eccentric manager, famed for his penchant for green wellies and his love of geography, is also renowned as a passionate believer in the long-ball approach.

Soltvedt though prefers a passing game and hopes to prove his point tomorrow if his goal against Liverpool retains his place in the side in the face of increasing midfield competition.

He said: "I could have a stiff neck on Sunday morning from looking at the ball in the air but it will be worth it if we get three points!

"If I can score the winner tomorrow I will be the happiest man on the park. It would be good to put one over on Egil Olsen. He is a very nice man but very different. Not everyone in Norway is like him!

"I don't fancy his way of playing football. It is all kick and run and long ball. I played under him for Norway and he is a good man but he does things his way.

"He does a lot of work with computers to analyse individual performances and he never wants the ball to go backwards unless there is a very good reason. It is the same even in training.

"And to be fair it worked very well for the national side. It is not the nicest game for the crowd to watch but it got results.

"The players have to believe in it though. Norway's strength is that they have used it for six or seven years and all the players are used to it.

"We know what to expect from Wimbledon. They work very hard especially on set pieces which will bring them a lot of goals and we will have to be ready for that.

"But they are also leaking goals - and hopefully that will continue tomorrow."

Jason Dodd pulled out of training yesterday with a recurrence of his knee problem but hopes to be fit tomorrow. Scott Hiley stands by while Patrick Colleter is strongly in contention for a recall at left-back.

Hassan Kachloul and Marian Pahars have recovered from knee injuries and both trained yesterday while James Beattie has shaken off a dead leg to give manager Dave Jones virtually a full squad to pick from. Kevin Davies begins a three-match ban though after failing to get his red card over-turned.

Jones has hinted at changes after six Premiership games without a win to drop perilously close to the relegation zone. They are level on points with the Dons making tomorrow's game a crunch fixture.

Jones said: "We are not losing but we are drawing too many and we keep giving silly goals away. We have tried to work on that again this week but it is now up to the players on the pitch to cut it out.

"We had a great victory there last season when we took 10,000 fans and won 2-0.

"It was a fantastic day and a repeat of that result would do nicely. The players know it will be a hard battle but they will be up for it."

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