Have we any confidence in FIFA?

Crisis, what crisis, claims FIFA president Blatter. This is the man who is seeking another 4 year term in office after presiding over it for the past 12 years. The fact he is head of an organisation, which is riddled with claims and counter-claims of corruption seems to be of no consequence to him. He states, we will sort out any problems within the family. It reminds me of the old Soviet Union type of election, where the existing politbureau members vote themselves in unopposed. Better late than never, the English and Scottish FAs have registered their opposition to tomorrow’s vote, saying it should be postponed until the accusations have been dealt with. Although a bit late in the day to make a proper impact, both FAs claim to have growing support from other football authorities. They will need at least 50% of other FAs to support their resolution for it to be successful. Otherwise Blatter will smugly sit at the head of an association tarnished with accusations of wrongdoings for the next four years. Both he and his European stable mate Platini, who have a combined dislike of anything English, will continue to put obstacles in the way of any technology that will improve the game. I for one, think there is a need for an alternative world football organisation to challenge FIFA, because until then we will be governed by something that leaves a rotten taste in your mouth. If the 75 year old Blatter had any integrity, he would voluntarily step down and let independent adjudicators investigate the claims of corruption before holding fresh elections, with more than one candidate to choose from.



The dream finally ends....

Well the dream is finally over. It still feels extremely raw even 24 hours later. I suppose I’m like a lot of fans who really take it bad when we lose, don’t play to our full potential or like yesterday, get relegated. I try to shut it out of my mind by whatever means necessary. When we lose, I never what Match of the Day, I don’t watch the news just in case they show excerpts of the game, I avoid newspapers and I generally go to ground until such time the hurt starts to diminish. I didn’t have a ticket for the match at Old Trafford, mainly do the fact our allocation sold out to season tickets holders of 5 years or more, all 3,000 of them. What a paltry amount to allocate to visiting fans when Old Trafford now holds 75,000. It’s no wonder United are hated by most fans. So, as I don’t subscribe to that other hate of mine, Sky, I was forced to listen to BBC’s Five Live, with Jimmy Armfield commentating. I normally watch any Pool games I can’t get to on-line via WWW.livefootyonline.com but I’ve just got rid of my Virgin broadband because of our proposed house moving (that’s another story I’ll write about shortly) and replaced it with 3’s mobile broadband, which is ok for most things but live streaming is not one of them. So, as the game progressed I skipped from radio coverage to BBC TV coverage on channel 301 where Gaby Logan, Dion Dublin, Steve Clarridge and Garth Crooks held court to Sky Sports on-line and back again. I couldn’t settle all afternoon because one minute I was down then I was consumed with pride when Charlie equalised and Gary Taylor-Fletcher did the impossible when he put us into a match winning position with 20 minutes to go. But you just knew it would never last, being a Seasider for far too many years has taught me never to take anything for granted, in fact over the years it makes you the supreme pessimist. And with other results not helping, in particular Wigan (who have been in the bottom three all season along with Wolves) beating Stoke away, you knew we were doomed no matter what we did. Notice the pessimism creeping in again. When our fate was finally sealed I fell into a silent depression, which lasted until about a couple of hours ago. Ok, so I’m a bad loser, but that’s because I have always been competitive in everything I’ve done, ask my wife and daughter, they’ll confirm this. In fact my daughter even refuses to play Monopoly with me. She always blames me for putting her off the game. Well, it’s back down to Championship next season, which if I’m honest for me is more enjoyable than the premiership. Well at least we can expect regular Saturday football with disruption down to a minimum unlike what we’ve had this season.

Right down to the wire....

This is turning out to be one of the closest premiership relegation battles for years. In recent times having reached 39 points would have guaranteed you another season in the top flight, alas not this season. Most teams can look back and wince at the number of chances and drop points they've had, ourselves included, but that's what makes footy the best game in the world. We go into next Sunday's game at the home of the new champions elect, needing a win to at least give us a fighting chance of staying up. Any one of five teams could go down with West Ham. Fortunately Wolves play Blackburn and like us, both need to win to be totally sure of survival. With Wigan and Birmingham both playing away at Stoke and Spurs respectively, nothing is certain. I still hope Wolves    and    Birmingham    will   join West Ham in the championship rather than us or Blackburn and Wigan, simply because we are all North West clubs. Sunday  certainly won't be for the faint-hearted, with rival fans glued to radios and phones etc, relaying scores throughout the match. It's just a pity we didn't manage to stay out of the bottom three, which would have made the last day a little bit more comfortable for us, but like I've said, being a Pool fan has never been easy. If we do get r*******d, there are some things I will not miss about the premiership. Players feigning injuries, blatant time wasting, over paid prima donnas, too many backroom staff and advisors, poor match officials and the disruption to match days by the television companies. If we do manage to stay up, then it's a burden I'll be willing to carry. I'm a martyr to meself.

A 4-3 cracker.

It's strange but the last time we beat Bolton 4-3 was on a Cup Final day, albeit 58 years ago. It's no wonder the football neutrals and television companies love Blackpool Football Club. If nothing else, we serve up entertaining football, usually with plenty of goals. Today's game had huge significance, which if we hadn't won would have made next weeks final game at Old Trafford meaningless. It's a pity Wolves won again and Blackburn managed to eke out 1-1 draw against United, because our league position remains the same as last week. Nevertheless, we go into the final game still with a chance of staying in the premiership for another season. What fairy tale ending that would be, going to Old Trafford and winning whilst those in trouble around us, losing.

The clock's ticking....

I felt I'd lost a £1.00 and found 50p yesterday. Ok, before the game I would have gladly settled for a point at Spurs, especially as they over-ran us in the first 30 minutes. But as we came more into the game we gave as good as we got. A number of chances fell our way, but unfortunately none counted. Our workrate helped us to keep Spurs' internationals under control, but without providing an end product. Then is a space of a couple of minutes we went from dispair to elation, when first Charlie had a penalty saved only for him to be given a second chance, from which he scored to put us 1-0,with 15 minutes to play. We always knew it would be a nail biting time and we knew Spurs would throw everything our way, but we still managed to hold things together until the 89th minute. In the past Ollie has been criticised for not trying to defend a lead, so yesterday he brought on Craig Cathcart to shore up the defence, but unfortunately he wasn't quick enough to close down Defoe who equalised from the edge of the box. That was my 50p moment. There I was, one moment thinking, wow, 3 unexpected points only to feel disappointed with the one point I would have been happy with at the start. Sadly for Gareth Bale, Charlie's tackle on him looked very nasty and he will count himself lucky if the FA don't punish him for it. If they do, let's hope it's not before the last two remaining matches. West Brom's poor performance today against Wolves has meant we are back in the bottom three. So, our fate we be decided next Saturday when we host Bolton, because anything short of a win will mean relegation. That will prompt us to look at all the points we have thrown away, which if we had won would have put us in a mid table position. But if football was that easy no one would get relegated.

Three games to go.

With just three games to go we are still above the drop zone. So, if the end of the season table stays the same we will be playing premiership footy for another season. Saturday's match against Stoke wasn't pretty to watch and the strong wind made conditions even more difficult for both sides. Yet again we nearly shot ourselves in the foot just before half-time, by gifting Kenwyn Jones possession and when he rounded Gilks and with an open goal at his mercy it looked odds-on we'd go in 1-0 down. What does the £8m striker go and do? Misses it by a mile. Relief all round for the home faithful, disbelief for the travelling ones. It puts the criticism levelled at our strikers when they fail to score in perspective, when their average worth is no where near the price paid for Jones. Talking about criticism, which is something I don't like doing with any player who don's the tangerine shirt. I have to register my concern about Charlie Adam's lack of consistency since the start of the new year. Ok, he set his heart on moving on in January, but seemed to accept his move would be delayed until our fate would be decided come the end of the season. Take Saturday's game, he looked off the pace, gave away possession to easily, decided to take all the corners and free-kicks despite Eardley and others being better placed to do them. Being captain also brings responsibilty with it. I would expect a captain with the talent he has, to be geeing up and trying to motivate the players around him all through the game, like Shawcross did for Stoke. Alas, Charlie failed to do the same. He gives the impression of not being able to do that if he is below par himself. Perhaps he's carrying an injury and his form is suffering because of this. If so, he needs to let some one else take his place, otherwise he risks jeopardising our chances of staying up. On a positive note, the immergence of Ian Evatt as a premiership player cannot be underestimated. For me he should be made captain. You can tell he hates losing and will let others know if he feels they are not doing enough. Since Alex Baptiste and him have been at the heart of our defence, we have looked far more solid than before. Although Craig Cathcart is a good player, I think Ollie was justified in dropping him to the bench. Survival is still in our hands and we should concentrate on winning our remaining games and not rely on others. That means 100% concentration at all times and ensuring we don't give silly goals away.

                                  COME ON POOL WE CAN DO IT.