Nineteen Canteen

To be fair Delldays there was plenty of width - we just didn't have the creativity as you say to capitalise it. I also thought Brentford were very resilient at the back and quick to close down but for all our nice build play in front of them we couldn't break them down and as Pardew said we lacked imagination. I think we understimate how good Brentford are at this level.

Mike I respect your knowledge and opinions but in my experience can only presume 'it's the company I keep' and the leagues I have been involved in and the district and county junior teams. I'm not denying where our future stars come from but that doesn't mean to say the structure is right and managed correctly regardless of the fact it is run by volunteers. Other sports are run far more professionally run and certainly not taken as seriously at such a young age. I've had involvement/insight with/to various academies, Saints, Oxford, Reading and Chelsea. Do you think these academies are run to suit the development of youth players and can they tell at under 10's when players have not developed and thereon their different growth spurts may actually see slower growing more talented players put aside for a couple of chunky charlies who by 16/17 would be better off playing rugby? I would like to see clubs do away with academies especially at pre-teens because I doubt we shall see any of those U10's playing for Saints and IMO very few if any will be playing at U13's. Not only that some of the parents of those young lads will have a massive commitment in terms of time and travel and a negative impact on the players family life, health and education. I'm aware of a young u12 Chelsea player who couldn't cope with the stress of the academy because of school, study, travel, parent stress etc. Parents were disappointed, the club was disappointed but the player relieved moreover non-plussed. Did it matter him dropping out? Well for a huge academy when did the last product of the their academy play first team football on a regular basis for Chelsea? I would love to see regionally / county run FA schools of excellence run by a mixture of paid and volunteer coaches but all with coaching badges and to run mini leagues within the centres and a freedom for youngsters to play with their local club side which is an opportunity that will be robbed of those under 10s today who will still want to play with their mates and enjoy themselves and why should they be robbed of their childhood by a mercenary football club? I agree the education system has let all sport down and IMO there is no excuse for every school to have a team and play after school matches in a league made of teams from schools in their district. this would feed the current but valuable haphazard district teams and then onto players getting county honours via a far more equitable system. There are good volunteers at grass roots but IMO to many bad apples motivated for the wrong reasons of personal ambition or they are only in it because of their son's involvement and when he stops playing for whatever reason the manager and all that experience tends to walk leaving a big hole. IMO the recent FA campaigns don't address the real issues and training and retention of those managers/volunteers once their initial motivation for involvement has passed and the glory hunters basically need to have the tools taken from them to be able to take players from other teams or outside their catchment area as it diminishes competition and size of leagues. The real heros though are the volunteers with the dubious and thankless privilege of running the leagues. Have you ever got involved with any of that? I haven't but any league secretary has my sympathies.

Try going to games we looked good going forward until usually Lallana tried to play it through a cul-de-sac of Brentford players. I thought we played it from defence when we could and hoofed it when necessary to clear the danger but it was the final ball that was lacking and somewhat ironically a decent sideways cross from the wings would have sufficed. Anyone got Clive's number?

FF I notice you avoided SOG's 'nous of a turnip' quip. Makes you wonder and perhaps was it is no surprise he needed a 'ghost writer'? Given MLT's decision to endorse Pinnacle and some of his alleged comments on Sky recently after Liebherr had bought us and considering your personal experiences with him as you have told us on here, do you think we can rely on his opinion in the book?

Lowe may have dug the hole in your opinion but why do you and the rest of the moaners want to bury the club whilst its actually climbing out of it?

Unfortunately many over the past few years have listened to your advice and given the opportunity we have now be afforded courtesy of Mr Liebherr and his team the reaction of some fans is .............actually for the first time I am speechless and can't find the words to describe the negativity being shown by some fans and that they still have cause to moan.

I totally agree and most of the comments are simply staggering to be honest. What did fans expect with our severely hindered preparation and an owner who had already stumped up many millions just to keep us from going under altogether - 4 straight wins and a transfer budget of £50m?

IMO I don't think the squad will be weakened by losing two of Poland's finest as they are overpaid, lazy misfits who probably unsettle Pardew's effort's to create a close knit unit. He clearly wants rid of them IMO but needs to trim the squad before any players come in which at this stage, looks unlikely at least until January. The man through no fault of his own has run out of time and at least he hasn't brought in players just because they are available and provide cover and clearly some detailed thought is going into his rebuilding process. All good stuff but today I thought Mellis showed some nice touches and we looked far better down the left than the right (Lallana) first half until Pardew switched them late on. I think Mellis was unlucky to come off and Lallana very fortunate to stay on and I will be surprised if he is given many more chances to give the ball away so casually or continually run into dead ends without getting his head off the ball.

How do we compare with Leeds, Norwich and Charlton so far this season? It's poor I expect against these teams who I would consider our peers in this league and judging we nearly died as a club and with a new structure and so much hope about the place. Yes, I think the response from the fans is extremely poor. Norwich were beaten 7-1 first home game of the season if that happened to us the next home game the stewards would be given a day off. Our fans need a reality check and stop waiting for Liebherr to 'donate' some millions and show him how grateful they are by attending games because that is the only way he will be assured he has a worthwhile investment. With regard to those fans already mindlessly moaning about the results so far - if they are that unhappy go back down our recent history and ask ALL those involved with Pinnacle how then managed to beat Liebherr's bid to exclusivity and target your 'unhappiness' in their direction.

I thought our crowd was disappointing considering the strength of the Brentford contingent. Just over 16,000 Saints fans not good enough especially when we play teams with far weaker travelling support.

Sorry Wes I meant a long time, a very long time even better than some of the obtuse ramblings of one Gordon Strachan. I don't think Pearson could have spoken for that length of time without repeating himself many times and the infamous managerial (I don't know what to say anymore) phrase 'As I said'. You need to get over Nigel - he's moved on and so should you.....I have.

Nail squarely on head and let's not forget what he inherited and the time he has had to address those problems. A bit like entering a marathon race with the other 23 managers from league one except they've all been given a 2 hour head start and Pardew has to pick up their discarded water bottles en route to find ways to freshen up his squad.

Do you expect us to win every game we play even ignoring the fact we are 6 weeks behind everyone else and Pardew has very quickly had to try and build a team from nothing and by his own admission he has spent more time on the phone than with the players. The unrealistic expectations and kneejerk comments from some fans is mindless stupidity and surely a manager as erudite as Pardew is clear on what his objectives are and confident he can deliver. Anyone who attended the game today can see that we have improved but didn't have the imagination or ability to break Brentford as often as our build up play deserved. Pardew knows that, he's told us he know's that and has the ability to sort it if some idiots care to listen or attend games and see for themselves.

In that case look forward to talking to you again tomorrow morning.

BTW I would estimate that 3,000 of that 19,000 were a very strong Brentford contingent so given we have 11,300 ST holders the support perhaps wasn't as great as it could have been.

To be fair Tim the team didn't screw up. Their is room for improvement with our wide players and Lalllana in particular but we also still have Mclaggon to come back in who is a very bright prospect. OUr back 4 looked good but for one defensive lapse that they were made to pay and we should have been 3-1 up at half time. Not only that Pardew has I think made a very eloquent and reassuring assessment of our situation and provided we accept mid table safety is our aim this season in readiness for an assualt on the automatic promotion places next season there was much to enjoy today and many positives. Hearing Pardew clearly identify the weaknes and hold the individuals concerned to account and give them the challenge of upping their game it feels pretty good to be a fan tonight if I am honest and certainly not downbeat, very positive in fact.

Not sure why you suggest that Hypo considering you allege an administrator told you we apparently had similar IP addresses and my subsequent question is that not breaking some sort of data protection or not exactly reassuring when the admin have access to personal email addresses as a minimum. Anyway for the record the answer is obviously no.

Listened to this on the way home and before it came on I was feeling pretty happy with the result and the performance (with 1 or 2 exceptions) and that you could easily see the rebuild is taking shape but it will take a few more games yet to sort out those areas of weakness. With that in mind after the interview I came to the conclusion I cannot remember the last time I listened to a Saints manager talk with so much openess and common sense and readily accept and identify the areas that need work and to be sending ' a pull your socks up message' to named individuals. Pardew came across as shrewd, focussed, determined and very experienced and comfortable with his coaching and rebuild. It was great listening and refreshing and reassuring in equal measure and provided we all accept this season is the critical building blocks of a foundation to automatic promotion next sesaon then I think we are in for a very enjoyble few years full of promise IMO.

Does Tim know you have his password?

Neither but recently read Paradise Lost. Anyway that is not the point I was trying to make the point that to make an autobiography to be worthwhile to those with a vested interest and those without it should not pull any punches and be enlightening especially when the memories of the buying audience are likely still be vivid. By his own admission MLT says he doesn't have any axe to grind with the likes of Lowe - do you believe that? I'm not sure I do and therefore can we be sure MLT has told us at it really was or chosen, as is his right to concentrate on the football side of his story. The best autobiographies are those where the publishers take 12 months to get it through legal and not 12 hours. My personal preference is that people should publish their life story in the autumn/winter of their days as a lasting legacy and memory not mid career change. Not exactly in the Ustinov and Niven class is it but to be fair not many sporting or entertainment autobiograhies are although a recent charity event yielded Bob Monkhouse's story for a few pennies and that certainly and surprisingly ticked all the boxes.

I've helped in a lot of leagues Mike and in different sports and that is why I am confident in my opinions. TH FA's respect campaign is a step in the right direction but many are still purely playing lip service to it. Are you seriosuly telling me that junior teams don't poach the best players from smaller sides especially through the age groups so that more and more teams find it impossible to get the players or simply get weary of being thrashed by these 'super' teams winning everything as a result of a zealous manager whose personal ambitions are greater than the development of youth football. I could give you many examples and one in particular from last season and unconnected to me in any way (before anyone asks). Manager of one of these super teams whose star player happened to be his son and over the space of three season's 'tapped up' players from other teams to create an unbeatable team and effectively over time reduced the opposition from two divisions to one. Last season Manager's son gets signed on by a league club manager walks away and a lot of good players now without a team and tragically probably tarnished by their experience instead of the benefits had they stayed with their original teams. I can actually give you two more examples even worse than that before we start looking at grown men balling out 9 and 10 year olds. We are pulling the wool over our eyes if we think those in youth football are doing a wonderful job - in my experience they are very much in the minority.

LOL - no - the profile didn't fit....

Yes on both counts, from treasurer, secretary, manager, ref, put upon parent and fund raiser and at county and district schools and FA rep teams. I still stand by my opinion that the motivation of many of those involved is to encourage and promote their own off spring and the result and league position is more important than the unbias development of the individual player and the enjoyment of playing the game. You can spot the type of person I'm talking about and invariably they have the team track suits with their initial and are all smiles and bravado until the first 'dodgy' decision goes against them and he starts giving his team hell. Their physical profile suggests their football experience has come from the telly and a few cans of Stella and have not played the game since their school days under a RSM of a PE Teacher. Stereotype? Yes, I'm afraid so and one you can see on every council pitch every Saturday or Sunday. Their are some brilliant exceptions to this rule but you are deluded if you think they are the norm and those motivated solely by their desire to help kids play football should be treasured.

Phil that is assuming they really want it and have not become mercenary journeyman. Skacel could have gone to Ipswich last year on half money and still be playing but he chose the easy route IMO and these two don't seem any different.