MAGPIES’ boss Graham Kemp has been staggered by the reaction to the county town club sealing the deal for former Southampton and Bolton Wanderers midfielder Andy Robinson.

The central-midfielder ended his time abruptly at the Macron Stadium in July having signed for Wanderers in May from St Mary’s, following a loan spell late last season.

But in returning to the Bournemouth area, Kemp jumped at the opportunity to snap up the 21-year-old on non-contract terms and insists he will start in today’s FA Cup encounter at home to Hendon (3pm).

“I think I did him a little bit of an injustice really,” Kemp told Echosport.

“You do your homework when people put themselves forward, they all say they have done this and done that. It wasn’t really until I saw the reaction on Twitter that I realised what a good signing he could turn out to be.

“People from all realms of football have been contacting me telling me what a signing it is.

“He has been training with Conference clubs and lower Football League clubs, but they have all sorted themselves out and he doesn’t really want to sit in the reserves or anything like that. He just wants to play and we can offer him that.

“He is about as good as you could get at this stage of the season for someone who is not cup-tied so it suits both parties and we will see how things go over the next few weeks.”

Robinson made his senior debut for Southampton in the Capital One Cup, when he replaced Jack Cork during a 2-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday at St Mary’s in 2012.

Explaining how the deal came about, the Avenue boss added: “He (Robinson) contacted us, we had a couple of mutual colleagues in football and I think he is just a little bit disillusioned at the moment.

“He was on loan at Bolton for the last few weeks of last season and it wasn’t until the last few weeks of pre-season that the manager told him that he probably wouldn’t be in his plans.

“My style of management can be good to get the enjoyment back for people and we just felt that short or long-term it could work out well.”

Kemp also claimed that he was impressed by the Saints’ academy graduate’s attitude, and he holds hopes that Robinson’s level of performance can provide a welcome boost in performance for the rest of the Dorchester squad.

“He seemed a really genuine chap at training, the money wasn’t an issue and it was more a case for him to know if he was going to start or not,” the county town chief said.

“One man doesn’t make a team though, and I hope that the lads look around the changing room, see him sat there and raise their game.”