BLACKPOOL striker Steve Kabba, who is on-loan from Watford, has been backed to recapture the form that made him one of the country's leading young strikers.
Kabba was prolific at Grimsby and during his first season at Sheffield United.
But in the last five years, a combination of injuries and a loss of scoring form has hindered his progress.
The 27-year-old is making a fresh start at Blackpool, where's he on loan until January.
It's gone well so far, with Kabba scoring on his full debut against the Blades last weekend.
That should be enough to earn the striker a starting role at Southampton, and boss Simon Grayson believes he can help the striker get back to his former self.
"I'm hopeful that Steve is going to be a very good player for us," said the boss.
Can Kabba fire Blackpool to safety? Leave your thoughts below."I don't want to sign players that I don't think will affect the team.
"He has had a spell at Watford when he hasn't really affected their first team.
"He has had periods of games at other clubs where he has done really well and I am hopeful that we can get that sort of form back into him.
"We want to help him kickstart his career and make sure he scores the goals and contributes to our team in the way that I'd like him to.
"There's no getting away from the fact that his career has just stalled a little the last two seasons.
"He had a good run of games at Sheffield United and got a good number of goals.
>> Read Steve Canavan's new blog"At Watford, for whatever reason, it just hasn't worked out for him and players don't become available if they are doing well at their club.
"He didn't figure in their plans so we took the opportunity to take him for six months.
"He's had a tricky start because he picked up an Achilles injury which kept him out for a while.
"But he's back now, almost fully fit, and hopefully we can give him a lot of games and he will benefit our team by being here.
"Whatever happens in the long term we'll see. I just want him to play as many games as possible between now and January, score goals and get back to the sort of form he showed in the early part of his career."
Kabba has spent the last 18 months at Watford but struggled to make an impression, scoring just once in 25 appearances.
For more from Simon Grayson, pick up a copy of Thursday's Blackpool Gazette.>> Grayson hoping for new faces before deadlineThe full article contains 454 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
