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SAINTS Strong words from the man who

Saints’ decline was‘criminal’ – Sydenham

‘We didn’t talk about defending’

FOR Saints fans thewords Sydenham andPaine would roll offthe tongue as easily aspeaches and creamthroughout the late50s and the 60s.

The pair baited defencesacross the land for 14 years,with the latter tormentingdefenders with his skill whilst,on the opposite flank, the for-mer would simply dart pastopponents with his devastat-ing pace.

The duo were the catalystsduring Saints’ rise from thethird division to the top flight,providing pinpoint crosses fortheir colleagues to tuck away.

Sydenham and Paine (pic-tured left with Ted Bates)helped Saints to the Division 3title in 1959/60 – Sydenhammissing just one of the 46matches and Paine being anever present.

On Saturday the clubwill return to thethird tier for thefirst timesince then –s o m e t h i n gSydenhamn e v e r

thought he would see.“I was totally, totally

shocked by the decline,”admits Sydenham, who nowlives in Perth, WesternAustralia.

“I worked for a number ofyears as a scout in Australiafor Southampton and had somuch pride.

“When it started to fall apart,it really did.”

Too right.

Family club

Sydenham and his team-mates were on the crest of awave after their title win 49years ago and Ted Bates’ man-agement

It was a family club, a happyclub and a very secure finan-cially one at that.

All that has changed.“I saw it close up,” he

says. “The CliveWoodward thing, theAustralia thing, mil-lions of pounds wast-ed by people who

don’t really understand foot-ball.

“By people meddling, whoreally shouldn’t have been.”

Sydenham mentioned onemajor point of resentment –the decision to start an expen-sive academy in Australia.

“To be honest, it was prettyheartbreaking because it washappening on my doorstep,”he says. “I mean that’s the sortof thing which is part of thebig picture of money.

“Large sums being spent onplayers who were never goodenough. Agents that werenever ever going to be part ofSouthampton FC, which iswhy we went adrift.”

He believes that is part of thereason Saints find themselvesin the predicament they arenow in – starting League Onebottom of the table with a ten-point deduction.

But the left-winger views thefuture with optimism. Hepoints out that at least the clubis saved, their are new ownersand a fresh start.

He is especially pleased withthe appointment of AlanPardew as an alternative tothe Dutch “c***” fans wereforced to watch last season.

“When I first read about pureDutch football I thought it wasnever going to work in thereal world,” he said.

“I was watching a lot ofgames live in theChampionship and it was allroute one. The goalkeeper lit-erally hitting it long to thestriker who holds it up beforelaying it off.

Concerned

“All this pretty midfieldstuff the Dutch people wereadvocating didn’t work, espe-cially with the young lads.”

Sydenham was part of theSaints youth system that didso well in the 1956-57 FAYouth Cup, reaching the finalagainst the Busby Babes.

From there Sydenham andPaine were gently bloodedinto the first team, meshing inwith experienced profession-als, allowing them to learnfrom others as well as theirown mistakes.

But the current crop ofyoungsters weren’t so lucky,and Sydenham, who will be atSt Mary’s on Saturday, is con-cerned for their development.

“I fear [last season] mayhave affected the young ladsand maybe they won’t go on inthe game like they would haveif they had gone into an expe-rienced team,” he remarked

“I know there was no choicebut to let it get to the levelwhere we relied purely onyouth was criminal.”

He apportions the blame atthose in the boardroom butnow hopes the club is on asound footing.

“People are going to have tobe patient, its going to take along time to rebuild,” he says.“Rome wasn’t built in a day.

“But the big thing is that thefacilities are there. A wonder-ful stadium, training facilitiesthat are second to none.

“We just need to get thename back to attract players.”

HITTING OUT: John Sydenham has been critical of how Saints have ended up back in Division 3.

By Simon Peachechosport@dailyecho.co.ukFor up-to-the-minute sport – dailyecho.co.uk

JOHN Sydenham has revealed thelast Saints team to play in the thirddivision hardly ever talked aboutdefending.

Sydenham was one of the stars ofTed Bates’ side that stormed to thethird division title in 1959/60.

He and Terry Paine provided theammunition for Derek Reeves to belt39 league goals while George O’Brienstruck 23.

“The main strengths of the teamwere going forward,” he says, fiftyyears on. “In those days we wereencouraged to do what we did best –attack.

“Defensively we weren’t the best sothe idea was to score more goals thanthey did.

“We had some really good goalscor-ers, two wingers and really it was allabout attacking football.

“We never talked defensively, wejust kept taking them on and didn’tworry when it didn’t work out, as weknew people would get back andcover.”

Sydenham, in just his third seasonas a professional, blossomed duringthe 1959/60 season, and even earneda call-up to the England under-23squad.

It was a far cry from the previousseason when Saints finished a lowly14th and there was a clear need fornew signings.

Bates duly obliged, bringing in 10new arrivals while 14 left.

During the season Saints racked up106 league goals with Reeves bag-ging 39 – a club record to this day.

Cliff Huxford, who had arrived fromChelsea in the summer of 1959,helped shore up the defence. Thecentre back was immediately installedas captain aged just 22.

“Cliff was a fantastic captain, a guyyou wanted on your side,” says

Sydenham. “We used to train on thecar park, playing 5-a-side, and Cliffwould clean me out with so manyslide tackles I lost count.

“To have somebody like thathelps you because we were get-ting kicked up in the air by defend-ers. But Cliff was there to sort itout.”

Huxford was the leader on the pitch.Off it, Ted Bates was creatingsomething special.

“Ted was a guy you wanted tomake happy and win for,” admit-ted Sydenham. “He was that kind ofperson.”

Pards’plansFrom Back Page

After two relegations infive miserable seasons,Saints are in desperateneed of stability as theyapproach their first seasonoutside the top two divi-sions for almost half a cen-tury.

“My expectations are tostabilise the club on theplaying front,” said Pardew.

“The club is all here butthe team needs to sta-bilised, it needs some struc-ture to it.

“It’s a bit disorientated Ifeel at the moment in termsof players in the right holes.

“My immediate aim is tomake the team strong andcompetitive and I hope todo that for Millwall, but thatmight be a bit tight.

“We are minus ten and Ihave to make sure we getmid-table real quick.

“When we get to mid-tablethen I’ll start looking atwhat our goals will be.

“When we get to the endof January or the end ofFebruary we’ll see if we’vegot a chance of promotion,play-offs or whatever it is.

“But the short term aim ismake the team strong againand not get a disjointed per-formance like against QPR(in last Saturday’s friendly)where we weren’t bigenough or strong.”

JaiditalksFrom Back Page

rently the only coverfor centre backsWayne Thomas andChris Perry.

Pardew is keen togive Lancashire moretime to develop in thereserves before usinghim in the first team andJaidi would likely partnerone of Perry or Thomas.

However, the longer a dealfor Jaidi drags on, the moreconcern will grow that it willnot be completed.

Should that be the case, itis understood Pardew hasother targets in mind thatcould help Saints defen-sively.

However, Jaidi is firstchoice and Saints still hopeto have him in place beforethey kick-off againstMillwall at St Mary’s onSaturday.