Give it to Ron

It was a very good evening where Lawrie gave up his time to present awards to youngsters in the Test Valley area who had completed various levels of the DoE award. Lawrie was very attentive and assisted the handicap and showed a lot of care for them...this was not an attention seeking 'look at me' but genuine care you could see it clearly. Lawrie then gave a speech which at times was very amusing, there was an air of sadness in his voice when mentioning Ball and Osgood. He spoke of his schoodays, Bobby Robson, Doncaster, Grimsby and England, he told some stories about Sir Alf Ramsey that Bally had told him, about Gascoigne and a psychiatrist. He spoke about drugs and smoking and a 16 year old that could of made it and was fantastic but went off the boil and when they investigated he was on drugs was kicked out and disappeared out of football as a warning to the kids there. Loads more, to be honest I felt it was a bit too much 'I achieved this' but he was trying to show examples of what can be achieved by hard work and the youngsters had shown that in getting these awards. Just for NC....he doesn't go anymore as he has to pay for a ticket! I have 2 thoughts on this....yes there are too many hangers on in the club and game in the previous regimes and its great to see no politics now. Do we turn our back on the only manager who has won us something and gave this club something in history and some silverware? Would dear old Ted have to buy a ticket now? I have no doubt that Lawrie has an ego the size of Snowdon but he has worked hard, been there and done that to earn that ego IMO.

I am attending a function tonight that he is giving the prizes at I will send him your love NC ;-)

Well as he has played football in this country for 5 years he may just have learnt a word or two.

What about going to your local library?? try and get hold of these as pretty good http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0340780673/026-7859241-3918823

A couple of things in response - he did say that KD was also the best captain he had seen at any club he has been at, so why not say what he did as why take it away from the best 'club' captain? I got the impression he has spoken to KD and explained why he wants an 'on the pitch' captain so that will change as well due to injuries, suspensions and form. Why does a manager have to control things like fines? Surely empowering the players or captain to do it gives them more of self-discipline? I believe it was also mentioned that AP gets involved if there are 2 or 3 occurences so he is aware of whats happening and IMO take action if required. But to go forward you have to realise exactly what you have already? Last season we had enough cases of players joining that we didn't need and didn't recruit what was desperate for instead of like Forecast. Until he understands whether we are a team of lightweights, kickers or ball players he cant take action and get an identity. I think it was easier to be in the room as there was a lot to be gained from facial expressions, body language and aura coming from the top table that would address some of yourfears - they did mine.

KD will still officially be captain, but on the pitch on matchday there will be one closer to the action to help when players are starting to get involved in trouble etc. I agree with above it will be Hammond.

Yes but there are other factors.....ticket prices for the Prem and if you look at the Skates ST prices compared to ours you can see why ...although I agree as mentioned above the JCL's have started to drift. I worked in North Harbour IBM for a few years and the change was amazing when they started to do well.

Last season I paid over £500 for my 2 season tickets ...this season £330ish thats sensible to me as I renewed without thought.

The 15k we had supporting through thick and thin last season?

I think the Op may have been referring to this..... http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/4643446.Feelgood_factor_is_back_at_St_Mary_s/ The last paragraph is ridiculous IMO and why can't they let it all lie. Nothing to do with sensible ticket prices then?

Well as our stadium holds 32.5k and theirs only 19.5k it should really shouldnt it?

He would claim invalidity benefit off the National Health for Squirrels or NHS as its better known.

You obviously missed the bit where he asked everyone in the room if 5 years was unreasonable....everyone agreed apart from one..Perry queue his minor rant. Listen to the recording again. You are way off line here.

Really? That was not what he said at all and went to great lengths to say how KD arranges the fines, days out and time together! He mentioned that all the new faces are very professional and have not caused any problems and 'from the youngest to the oldest are working really hard " for him.

Pardew did mention pace and 'extension of the pitch' that still needs to be addressed. My thoughts were he realised how bad we were at the back at defending set pieces which in this league are regular occurences.He needed to sort that first and then work on the rest. We now have a spine. He also said that papa would hopefully address some of the issues but it would be madness to pin it all on one player. We are still looking to recruit but as we have a reserve team of professionals need to trim that down first.

In the suites upstairs. For a pint of Guiness and a half of coke it was a £5.

But surely this all depends on numbers the away fans bring? How many clubs bring more than a 1,000..maybe 4 clubs in this division? Many clubs will only bring 3-400 or Pompey 257 ;-). The club cannot afford to not sell a couple of thousand seats in the Northam just to keep fans away from each other.

But the club won't be in the current state when we return will it! Come on John - no-one thinks we are anywhere near that yet. In fact AP made it clear last night that we are trying to return the squad to the level it was last year after losing 4 very good players - he named Surman and McGoldrick as he watched the re-run of last years Preston game - which I thought a bit odd. We are starting to get the infrastructure right off the pitch with Wilkins and Downes. We now have a scouting network in place. We have a spine in the team now with Kelvin, Radhi, Trotman, Hammond and Lambert. The club was destroyed within with administration and cost cutting and Cortese, Markus, Oldknow and AP are rebuilding it slowly. In fact Cortese said last night it will take as long as it takes. Its the fans who demand instant reward look at those on here who were whingeing after just 4-6 games and ignoring the fact that we had no pre-season or time together as a squad to gel. Something Mark Hughes was talking about at the weekend with his defence. I left last night feeling quite warm and fuzzy (apart from the £3.50 a pint Guiness) with what I heard and the ambitions the custodians of our club have.

I am glad it came across that way on the radio - trust me had you been in the room with him you would of been as totally sold on him as I am now. He was very sincere, positive, forthright, honest and clear where we are now and where he wants to take us. He left me in no doubt that its going to be tough but he is addressing problems in this club slowly but correctly. He gave an example from the Swindon game where everytime the ball came into our box we were frightened - Trotman and now Jaidhi has hopefully addressed that and we no longer look as frail. He hasn't finished yet and I believe as soon as we have put a few out on loan we will see us further strengthened with pace up front.

He said because it was a good investment opportunity with us being where we are now and the opportunity to take us back to the Prem ....where the big money is. He said they realised the potential here and size of the club and wanted to be part of bringing us back to where a club this size(15th biggest club?) should be.

Steve Bulls younger brother was the guy at the front.

I took my lad to watch the training then went onto the forum. Jaidi is enormous up close...Papa looked lively but a bit erratic but very keen, Lallana was the most skilfiul, Bart looked a very good shot stopper and better than the last few games where he had missed most. I have seen 4 previous forums and believe me this was the best. I was told a couple of things about Pardew but trust me this guy knows his stuff and although on a full charm offensive his answers and honesty were so refreshing. Perry, O Callaghan and the guy from the Saints Trust all asked questions and were handled very diplomatically but firmly by the Radio Solent guy and AP. A couple of things off air....Holmes is playing for the Ressies tomorrow at Reading to get more match fitness. We are looking at someone from Newport...which was a response from someone asking about whether we looked at non-league players. I think Pardew is keen to do more of these as he said to the BBC guy we could do a whole evening show.

I think this is better on a different thread as this is about tonites forum and will be interesting to hear Mr Lowe's letter writer in action again ;-) I don't agree about your thoughts about our midfield 2 on Saturday - Hammond was the best player on the pitch IMO. He was everywhere and if he could finish some of the chances that come his way we will have a superb player. Our problem on Saturday was that we didn't have anyone for Morgan to pass to....Lambert was heavily marked - Saga was next to useless and we had no width for Morgan to ping the ball wide to. I watched Lallana for about 10 minutes before half-time and he was tucked in behind Lambert or in the centre and offering no width at all. James spent most of the first half camped in front of Thomas and the only crosses that came in were from about 10 yards inside their half and so easy to defend against. We are far too narrow and have no room to play.

The first one yes...the second one evens up the Stockport one it was handball but not deliberate. There have been many occasions when we should of had penalties in the last few years and not given and some givenj that were dodgey. Yesterday was our day and Yeovil can feel aggrieved by the decisions.

There was a Killer moment in the first half....the ball was played to the 18 yard line just by Jaidi who crashed in to a Yeovil forward taking the ball clean as a whistle leaving him in a heap! Thats the Jaidi zone and a very rare crunching tackle witnessed from a Saints centre half since we lost Michael.