Cobblers boss: Jacobs has 'done nothing yet'
Ian Sampson has moved to cool the growing excitement over teenage sensation Michael Jacobs by stating the midfielder has achieved nothing yet.
And the Cobblers boss has vowed to keep Jacobs – who scored twice and made a third in Saturday's 3-3 friendly draw with Watford – firmly grounded.
The 18-year-old has lit up the pre-season campaign with his contributions from midfield.
On Saturday, he played the full game against npower Championship opposition on the left wing, and his contribution was enormous.
But while Sampson concedes that Jacobs is a player who, if he continues to improve, 'will not be at the club', he says the youngster still has a lot to learn about the professional game.
"He was excellent for 60 minutes," said Sampson, who was without a whole host of injured players at the weekend, including Liam Davis, Abdul Osman, Andy Holt, Craig Hinton, Chris McCready and Chris Dunn.
"But he got tired towards the end, lost his shape and picked the wrong option a few times. He was different class for an hour and we want more from him.
"Having said that, if he starts producing more than he does he won't be at this club.
"He's done nothing yet. He's played two Johnstone's Paint Trophy games so he's done nothing in his career.
"He has a lot to learn and a lot to do so we're not getting carried away.
"He's had a couple of good games in first-team friendlies and that's it."
Saturday's game against Watford produced the best Cobblers performance of pre-season so far.
Twice they held two-goal leads over Championship opposition but faded in the final stages of the game to allow the Hornets back into the game.
Sampson was pleased that some of his training-ground methods are starting to pay off in games, but admits the squad still has some fitness work to do.
"I was pleased with the way we played but in the last 20 minutes the lads got tired," he said.
"We were out on our feet in that final stage of the game so there's still a bit of fitness work to get into the players but we looked a threat and I'm delighted with the goals we scored.
"Generally I thought we were pretty close to what we want the team to be producing."
Watford's second goal came via a quickly-taken free-kick that annoyed the manager, although he conceded referee Pete Walton did give his team the same opportunity moments later, Kevin Thornton hitting the post.
"I always thought you had to wait for the whistle on free-kicks and that's why you see the referee holding the whistle up and pacing 10 yards out," said Sampson.
"I don't know if that's changed but he let us have one at the other end and we hit the post."
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