Quote of the day

"They showed me the numbers that were available when I signed and the nine was there, but I took the 20. The No 9 shirt has to be earned here. It isn't like the No 9 shirt at other clubs. You have to earn it. You can't just walk in and take it. There is so much history there that I didn't want it. I'd like it in the future, but I want to prove that I'm worthy first. I'd like to be given it rather than take it."

Humble sentiments from our new striker Leon Best - or so you'd think. Chris Hughton's comments suggest that the shirt was never even offered to him: "It’s something I’ve done deliberately. We have a lot of strikers here and I’m quite sure that every single one of them would have wanted to wear the No 9 shirt. As soon as I came to this club I knew what it meant and it’s both my decision and a combination of a few things."

Anyone suspecting that Hughton intends to spur on our strikers with the tantalising prospect of being rewarded with the vacant shirt at the end of the season will have taken note of his post-match interview: "Potentially, he [Bigger Lad] is number nine material"...