SAINTS fan Ben Rochey-Adams has sent the following letter to the Daily Echo in the wake of yesterday's opening-day nightmare at St Mary's.

Unprofessional.

Everybody involved in Southampton's shambolic opening match of the 2007/08 season must stand up like men and publicly acknowledge that the perfomance against Crystal Palace was utterly unacceptable.

I suggest that all wages and payments received for the match should be donated to the Naomi House Children's Hospice in Winchester.

To accept money for such a pathetic performance would be shameful and unethical.

Alan Bennett's first appearance for the Saints must be his last.

He lacks the pace, strength and street smarts to be a central defender in the Championship and his recruitment to the Southampton cause should prompt an urgent and thorough review of the club's scouting procedures.

Scowcroft and Kuqi are hardly the most impressive strikers in the division but they had the run of St. Mary's, consistently brushing Bennett aside with ease.

He should be sent back to Reading immediately and a more suitable, experienced defender be found quickly.

Yousseff Safri has spent his entire career being not good enough for the Premiership, so his signing only serves to further demonstrate the overriding lack of ambition at the club.

We are still crying out for a ball-winning midfielder capable of inspiring the team to put up a decent fight against even the most mediocre of opposition.

To sell the likes of Bale, Baird and Pele (and Kenwyne Jones?) and replace them with such dross is inept - and I am not interested in lilly-livered excuses about finance and the loss of parachute payments.

Football clubs have to be competitive whilst balancing the books; it was ever thus, so if you cannot do that successfully then stop ruining the club and employ somebody more intelligent to do it instead.

Ben Rochey-Adams, Totton