Well what a week....

What a difference a week makes in football. Two late winners and you can sense the optimism returning. Where once if we went behind we would struggled to get back on terms and generally lose our way. Now there is a belief we can turn things around if we’re hit with a setback. 

What’s caused the turnaround? Well, the signings in the transfer window has had a big impact on our performances. Now, if we have injuries or suspensions we have replacements ready to move on up, which in turn puts pressure on the players out to perform better if they want their places back. No one now has a guarantee of a starting place, which is a good thing. Too many times in the past players maintained their positions even though their work rate and commitment was to say the least, below what was required. Hence the slide down the table.

The other big factor was the sacking of Simon Grayson. It’s no surprise that results have improved since his departure. Personally, I wasn’t jumping for joy when he was given the job, but like most fans you support whoever is in the hot seat. I could see why he was originally approached to take over. He was out of work, he had previous knowledge of the club this being his first managerial job and he had success at this level before too. At the beginning of the season it looked like it would work out. We were getting results and up there in the play-off positions. That said, you could see we looked very disorganised and prone to silly mistakes, the mistakes and loses grew as the season progressed. I was always disappointed with his aloofness on the sidelines, which had a bearing on how the team reacted to him. Something was missing, his man-management skills weren’t there, his tactics were predictable, so much so, opponents knew how to play us and this was affecting team morale. So the owners took the questionable decision to sack him. I say questionable, because some fans thought he should have been given longer to get things right, especially after the club agreed to sign so many players in the transfer window under his watch. Others said, why get rid of someone if there is no replacement to take over? I think the owners like the majority of fans knew he wasn’t the right man for the job. Managers who have had previous successes at clubs very rarely replicate that success if they return and so it proved with Grayson. 

It’s been well documented how trying to get a manager has been difficult. Names are springing up all the time as are the odds. I’m not worried how long it takes, because at the moment with David Dunn in situ results are encouraging.

He’s made it obvious he doesn’t want to be considered as the new manager and wants to remain a coach instead, you have respect his decision. But we have all seen the big improvements he has made to the players. He has them playing in positions, which suit their skills. He has made them sharper, better organised and willing to take on opposing defences, something that was totally lacking previously. The midweek rearranged match against Bolton was a good example of never giving up. Playing Bolton at the beginning of the season would have been a lot easier for us, because their situation is far different now. Even though Bolton equalised late on and we all thought the game would end up as a draw, up popped Dewsbury-Hall

with a cracking winner. Yesterday’s game followed a similar pattern with another exciting 2-1 finish in injury time. We again thought we would end up with a draw but that was until the much maligned Joe Nuttall headed in a superb winner from a Liam Feeney cross. In fact if it wasn’t for a brilliant game saving stop by Chris Maxwell minutes earlier the result could easily have gone to Ipswich. But his long ball up the field made all the difference.

I was hoping to finish this blog yesterday, but fate must have taken a hand in events. Simon Sadler and his board have announced this morning that they have appointed Neil Chritchley as the new Blackpool coach, who was until today the Under-23 coach at Liverpool. 

Neil has been given a contract until the end 2022/3 season, which is testament to the faith the club have in the appointment. Personally I think this is a very positive step. Neil is only one of 16 coaches who has achieved the highest UEFA coaching qualification. Although this is his first managerial position he has been both the Under-18 and Under-23 coach at Liverpool FC over the last 6 years there. He was born in Crewe and previously worked as Academy Director at Crewe Alexandra. Looking forward to welcoming him to Bloomfield Rd and to a successful time here. I’m sure the fans will give him the welcome he deserves.

Finally, I would like to thank Dave Dunn for the improvements he’s made to the team in the short time he’s been in charge. 

Another defeat but......

We travelled down to Bristol Rovers today following a pretty eventful week at Bloomfield Rd.We saw Simon Grayson depart after a depressing defeat by Gillingham. David Dunn was installed as the interim manager whilst the search goes on for a new manager.

Today’s game was Dunn’s first  in charge. With captain Jay Spearing forced to sit out the game due to being concussed in the midweek game, Dunn made three changes with Husband, MacDonald & Virtue in the starting lineup.

After a much improved all round performance by the team and after going 1-0 ahead in the 2nd minute with a Madine strike, we ended up suffering a 2-1 loss.

The sending off of stand-in skipper Ben Heneghan in the 43min for a reckless tackle didn’t help our cause but we got to half time still 1-0 ahead.Unfortunately in the 2nd half we were playing against a swirling wind, but nevertheless we had several chances to increase our lead and nearly squared things up in the last minute when Nathan Delfouneso effort was deflected past the far post. Today’s loss is a continuation of our current luck, not helped a lot of the time by poor officiating, today was no exception. Still, we can’t keep using that as an excuse for the results. 

This next coming week will hopefully see a new manager installed or at least identified as suitable.

Several names have come up including  Nathan Jones & Ian Evatt. The only hopeful who has officially put his name forward is Gary Taylor-Fletcher. It’s surprising how many managers are currently out of work, so perhaps an outsider could still take over the reigns. David Dunn has already indicated he’s not interested in taking the job on permanently. 

One person who hasn’t gone down well with us fans is former manager and favourite for a return to Bloomfield Rd, Ian Holloway.

His recent comments about the sacking of Simon Grayson as being disgusting hasn’t done his reputation with fans any good. In fact I would say any chance of a return here has now gone for good. Perhaps that’s how it should be, because as in the case of Simon Grayson, a return to a previous managed club is rarely the same. 

Looking forward to see how the forthcoming week will develop and who our new manager will be. There’s one thing for sure he’ll be working for a great owner in Simon Sadler, who will back him but who will expect results, after all he’s one of us. UTMP 

A truly Memorable Day.

It was 12 months ago this week when we got our club back and we all marched down to Bloomfield Rd to regain our seats in the stands. A truly memorable day.      

Since then things have changed for the better. We now have a new owner, a local lad, one Simon Sadler. He’s been open and honest with the fans from the off. He’s promised to improve the club but it will take time and money. He will prioritise what needs doing and he wants to see the team challenge for promotion to the Championship within the next couple of seasons. He appointed Simon Grayson as manager and although we made a positive start to the season getting up to 4th place, it seemed we were punching above our weight. We went on an unbeaten run even though our performances were lucky to say the least. This gave the fans a belief we could get promoted this season, albeit with tongue in cheek. I think most of us knew we weren’t good enough to go up.

Since this heady start our results & performances have taken a downward spiral. Fans were getting frustrated with Grayson’s tactics and the lack of improvement, despite having more money made available for new players, more back room staff and better ground/pitch facilities. He only managed one win in the last 12 games. Grayson’s time came to an end after the Tuesday night  2-3 defeat against Gillingham. Sadler had flown over from Hong Kong to attend the game and wasted no time in sacking Grayson on Wednesday morning. This proved the new owner had listened to the fans reaction to the defeat and did what was needed. I think the decision was what the majority of fans wanted. 

We now move to the next stage of searching for a new manager, which is both exciting and wary of who we get. Several names are in the frame already. Former club favourite Ian Evatt currently doing great things with Barrow is a lot of fans choice to take over. I’m not sure it’s the right time for Ian yet. He still has a job to do at Barrow and to get them promoted back into the Football League would be a great achievement from when he took over and great addition to his CV. Whereas if he left them now with the job half done and came here to be our manager there’s no guarantee he would be as successful and it could knock back his managerial career.

Hopefully in the next week or so we should know who takes over.