This could be the kiss of death.....

Now this could be the “kiss of death” for Paul Ince, on a par to him being awarded the “Manager of the Month”, but here goes.

 
I must admit he was never my first choice to replace Ollie, which was always going to be a hard act to follow as far as I was concerned. I was hoping we would get either Owen Coyle or Nigel Adkins, but looking at the latest league position I’m quite glad we didn’t get them. That said, I know it’s very early to get the automatic promotion banners out, because I remember this time last season when we were in a similar position. The difference this year is, I believe down to Ince Senior and his determination to make us defensively stronger. Admittedly we all loved the way Ollie got us to play in an attacking gung-ho style, which left the opposition bewildered and gave us a premiership start we could only have dreamed of, but which later became our undoing as teams started to stifle our way of playing. What we have now under Paul Ince/ Alex Rae/ Steve Thompson is a more sober style of play. OK, we’re not a free scoring team as we once were, but we’re certainly more solid. Of the six games so far, we’ve won five and drawn one, giving us a six goal advantage. I remember when Ollie was in charge how frustrated we got with his obsession for signing a glut of midfielders and strikers in preference to making us more solid at the back. With the exception of just a couple of players most of the previous defence have moved on, which for once has not had a detrimental effect on our performances so far.

 As most of us know being a Blackpool supporter is never easy and although we like to be optimistic there is always that nagging doubt in the back of our minds the bubble is bound to burst before long.  It’s also strange when things are going our way the chairman’s tightfistedness takes a back seat. We start to question whether our criticism of him is too harsh at times, but all it needs is a few defeats to reinforce our original thoughts about him. We know running the club is totally different to being a manager or a fan. You have to balance the books and these days run it more as a business rather than just as a football club. That said, it also important for a chairman to have the confidence to take the club forward quicker than presently shown. He needs to make sure he supports the management team so that the current momentum is not lost, something he failed to do in the past.

 
So, since taking over Paul Ince has managed to keep us in the championship, which at one time wasn’t guaranteed and since then has managed to takes us to the top of league unbeaten, even with only ten men in the last game. Let’s hope our form continues against Millwall tomorrow night and against the team I dislike more than PNE, Leicester City on Saturday. I know our unbeaten run will eventually come to an end, but in the meantime, WELL DONE PAUL INCE.