Despite the fact Nugent always scores against us and he arrogantly goaded the North Stand two seasons ago, after an incident with Sito, we had been willing to forgive and forget if he became a Blue.

But it is not the fact that he will not be joining us on loan that sticks in my throat, rather the way he has treated our club with contempt over the last two weeks.

If he had said immediately that he didn't want to drop down to the Championship and wanted to fight for his place at Portsmouth then it would not have been a problem.

But for the clubs' two chairmen to sort out a financial package for the deal and both managers to talk about it openly in public, suggests that Nugent showed interest.

The official word was that it was an injury that was holding up the deal but in this case, why was he not badgering Jim Magilton on the phone? "I'll be there soon, Gaffer, don't worry."

Instead Jim said he heard nothing from Nugent and on Tuesday called time on the weekend deadline, sensing the England international's heart was not in the move.

Of course Nugent may be injured and the South Coast may have poor mobile phone reception but I would not be surprised to see him turn up at another Championship side in the very near future, most likely Stoke.

Tuesday's draw with Sheffield United once again illustrated that we need more fire-power, a poacher who will grab a scruffy goal to turn a point into three.

At the time of writing, David Healy is heavily linked to fill this void, although I would welcome his signing, I would have some reservations.

He has excelled on the international stage but never reached the same levels domestically.

The speculation that has excited me more has been the possibility of signing another former Portman Road boo boy, Robert Earnshaw.

There were acquisitions that Earnshaw was just parking his Hummer at Carrow Road for a season, waiting for a better offer to come along.

But who cares about his long-term motives for rolling his bling wheels up to Portman Road, if he can score five or more goals in Town's last ten games we've got what we wanted and hopefully a play-off place.