Luis Melville of Brentford FC CST & local community station Westside Radio89.6FM caught up with Andy Scott at the training ground.

Westside Radio 89.6FM offers comprehensive previews and match reports on all Brentford home and away games on Saturday afternoon 2-5pm. At home games take radio to the ground and listen in or take part in the show by calling 020 8571 1188, emailing presenter@westsideradio.co.uk or text the word 'WESTSIDE' followed by your message to 60300. Got a view about Brentford then it get them heard.

Luis Melville: I suppose one of the maddening and frustrating things about being a manager and a coach especially with your team is that you know that they can compete with the top teams in this division and have had some decent results and performances and then you get a result like Tuesday night's against Brighton?

Andy Scott: It wasn't just the result, it was the performance and the way they conceded the goals that's frustrating. It seems that we take two steps forward and one back. I don't think we can be surprised about that as it's happened near enough throughout the season. That's continuing to be the case but we need to learn from the mistakes and obviously we are seeing that if we don't learn from those mistakes then we're not going to be capable of doing anything in this league. It's telling me a lot about the squad that we've got and we need to make sure we stamp out all of the silly errors and giving teams opportunities. We never seem to be given the opportunities that we give other teams. We've got to keep working at it and keep making sure that we impress that on the players and the players impress it upon themselves whilst they are on the pitch.

LM: Is that doubly frustrating to you though that you said that in the after match press conference that you are giving teams goals rather than them scoring fantastic one's and that you're handing them goals on a plate.

AS: One of the things we work on in training all the time and one of the major points we get across is not to give away fouls because it gives opportunities for the other team to be let off the hook. But defensively marking from set pieces for some reason were not defending well enough. We've set up different ways, we've changed people marking but yet we still conceded the goals. You can only do as much as you can with the personnel you've got and keep persevering. We weren't given any opportunities on Tuesday. They defended the box very well from crosses and from set pieces. We had more set pieces than they did but they defended it better. Brighton has got a budget and it's probably 33% higher than ours maybe more and yet they weren't great. They didn't carve us open. They didn't create too many opportunities until we started pushing forward at the end into injury time. Yet they've beaten us 3-0 and to the outside world it looks like it was a bit of a drubbing and it certainly wasn't that. We were well in the game for a while but if you give away cheap goals you're never going to win games.

LM: I suppose what I was really trying to get at with my last question was about the decision making of the players about when to try and win the ball and when to stand the player up and not necessary commit themselves to making a tackle and trying to force the opposing player to make the mistake. How much do you use the DVD's of the game to highlight these aspects of the game?

AS: Yes we show them the points you mention but some of the things are so basic that if we had to tell players the basics then we would be here twenty-three and a half hours a day every single day of the week going through the most ridiculous things. They are professional footballers playing in League One and they should know not to try and win a ball when they have no realistic chance of doing so and giving away a foul twenty five yards from our goal and then not defend the free kick properly. Sometimes you bang your head against a brick wall. That what happens and players from league one make poor errors and make poor decisions and the better teams have the better players who make better decisions more consistently. That's what we've got to try and get into our players that they make better decisions more often.

LM: Looking at the injuries and dismissal in the game against Brighton, it's probably a Football League record to lose 3 centre backs in one game either to injury or being sent off. You've got a real issue in that department. How are you addressing it?

AS: We're assessing the injuries and seeing how bad they are and Alan Bennett is definitely missing from Saturday. Were rallying around trying to find players but with the backlog of games to be played due to the earlier bad weather this year many teams have got a lot of games coming up and with the loan window shutting soon they don't want to let too many players out. There's a limited supply but straight after the game on Tuesday we were putting the feelers out and contacting the clubs about certain players. We always have a list of players that we have an interest in bringing in on loan if the opportunity is right. Whether any of them come off or not is another matter? It's not easy but we will keep persevering.

LM: Are you hopeful of trying to get someone. Are there one or two realistic options that are still available and you may have to go right up to the 5pm Friday deadline to include them for Saturday?

AS: Well it's going to have. Not much is going to be happening today (Thursday). Whether it happens tomorrow is another matter. We're hopeful that we can get something done. We're hopeful that maybe one of the centre backs who took a knock will be fit which would help us out massively but certainly having lost Tommy Smith we need a bit more cover. It's been a bit of a mixed bag this week. Very eventful and hard work too!

LM: After the game on Tuesday you were a bit unclear what the injury to Leon Legge was. Can you tell us what that is now?

AS: There was a crunching tackle in the first half with Andrew Cross where they both went for the ball. Both players were 100% committed to the challenge and he came off a little worse for wear on his ankle leading into the tendon in the shin. He's a brave lad and kept going and got through it but he struggled to walk afterwards. It's a case of getting him up to Stockport whilst treating him continually around the clock and seeing how he is Saturday morning.

LM: Are you going to have to shuffle the pack around and possibly play a few players out of position?

AS: On Tuesday night I was on the verge of taking Leon and Mark off at half time an fill in that centre-half spot with someone. I didn't know who. We were banging a few ideas round and bouncing them around but it's one of those things you have to deal with. We can't complain about it too much. They don't happen too often. It's not ideal to be happening at the moment.

LM: Just looking at events on the pitch in the Brighton game. You spoke about the application of the offside law by the officials so I'm going to play Devil's Advocate here. The offside law sparks plenty of debate from everyone. The law seems to be in a bit of a muddle with the various interpretations. How would you like to see it go?

AS: I think the first thing that's got to be pointed out is it's only a muddle because it's left up to the referees point of view and their opinion whether someone is interfering with play or not. The problem I had with the first decision is that clearly their player was offside and assistant referee put his flag up. We cleared the ball and the referee looked at the assistant referee and acknowledged him. He had his whistle in his mouth ready to blow and he waited to see if there was any advantage. There wasn't any advantage and yet he allowed play to go on. It's bemusing. The second one, there was ball played forward and Charlie had made a run. Someone had another touch he realised he was going to be offside he started running back towards our goal. The ball was played forward he ran over the top of it but he's deemed not to be interfering with play because he's running back towards his own goal. He's not actively trying to get to the ball yet he's given offside. The same happened to them. They were given a couple of offside's that were exactly the same. The law is difficult because no one knows what the consistent level of decision is. Who is interfering when someone is running back to their own goal? Are they interfering when they've run over it or are they running back toward their own goal because they don't want to be involved in play? It's a difficult one and certainly around the box when the ball goes forward and someone is standing in the middle of the goal offside and he's not interfering play then the ball is crossed into the box and he heads it in and he's not offside that's when more difficult decisions have to be made. As far as I'm concerned with laws of the game it's got to be black and white. It's either offside or it's not offside. Then everyone knows where they stand and it's not about interpretations of the law. We don't need FIFA and The FA clarifying the situation every now and again. What is offside what isn't and we work to those laws of the game. At the moment we don't know whether at the moment if there's a free kick and three people standing in front of the goal keeper in an offside position and run towards the ball and the goal keeper can't see the ball, are they interfering with play if they run back towards their own goal. I don't know. It depends on what referee you've got. It was a frustrating night all round but when decisions are being by assistant referees that a referee could be giving who was closer than them to the incident. There's just a lack of communication. Some referees like assistant referees to make decisions and others don't. I think the referee should referee the game and the assistant referee should do the offside and call the throw-ins.

LM: Would you like to see the offside law scrapped altogether because some people do say that?

AS: No. The games built on tactically and defensively working on units. The offside law is part of that and it can be used to your advantage as a player and if teams don't defend well then you could take advantage of it positively. I think it could turn into a farce if the offside law was taken out of the game because the pitch would so big you would have to probably use someone to patrol the penalty box of the opposition and stands on his own. What do you do? Do you mark him? Do you leave him? Then does it become a long ball game where someone just smashes it up to him. I think it could open a massive can of worms.

LM: Stockport away on Saturday. We've been here before where the teams above you bring out the best in the squad and then the teams around or below you prove to be a bit of an Achilles heel. Therefore this is a real tester for you because you need to get the team up for them and not to underestimate someone like Stockport even though they've only won twice since you beat them way back in October?

AS: They've certainly become a lot harder to beat. The pitch at Edgely Park has certainly helped their cause recently because they so used to playing on it and it's in such a poor condition. They will know how to play the conditions and we're going to have to do that on Saturday ourselves. By all accounts it is an awful pitch.

LM: I read that it's the sort of pitch that Shane Warne would have liked to have bowled on.
AS: I think even the rugby players have had a problem playing on it so that tells you all you need to know about it. That's what happens at this time of year. However, we have to go up there and roll our sleeves us and play with the attitude that we have to win the game. We can't allow ourselves to be dictated and impose our style of play on them.

LM: Defensively they've shipped nearly 70 goals. Do you go there very attack minded?

AS: We'll go there and set up how we normally do to try and win the game. We're not a side that can vary too much from what we do. Everyone has been brought into the squad because they are capable of playing in the system that we employ. On our day we do it very well. What we have to make sure is that days like Tuesday when not everyone is firing on all cylinders become less frequent. It's a big game for us and we need to get back on a roll again and picking more points up. We need to get over Tuesday's disappointment and focus on Saturday and see it as an opportunity to get back on track.

LM: Your striking options must be equally hard to expand on with trying to find a quality striker to bring on loan to back up what you have here at this time of the season?

AS: They're very far and few between. At this stage of the season getting any decent player is hard and made even more difficult by this ridiculous 7 sub rule. That has contributed to making it even harder to bring in quality loan players. It's been a busy time on that from trying to find a striker and now I am looking for a defender as well. I'll keep speaking to people and hopefully something will break for us and it won't be for the lack of trying.

LM: Just a final question on loans. What's the situation with Tommy Smith? As he didn't play for Ipswich against Watford, is there any chance you could get him back?
AS: We're speaking to them about it.

LM: Do the rules allow it?
AS: The regulations concerning loans allow it as long as it's done before the 25th March. We don't know what will happen. Clearly he wants to play to give himself the best chance to of getting to the World Cup with New Zealand. He was enjoying time here and clearly he did well on the pitch. We're in contact with Ipswich all the time not only him but other things as well and seeing what options they have available. We have to follow up all our leads as it were.

LM: Thanks for your time and good luck Saturday.