Which direction are we going?

I’ve not put pen to paper for a bit now, simply because I am totally confused with what’s been going on down at Bloomfield Rd this season.

Ollie goes after 3+ years, which is understandable. Then the chairman decides to go for Michael Appleton, who frankly managed a Portsmouth side going nowhere. This appointment was such a success he decided to jump ship the first chance he had after only 2 months in charge. Not only that, he decides to go to Venky Rovers, whose managerial appointments are worse than ours. So yet again we find ourselves managerless. Then Oyston decides to approach Phil Parkinson, currently at Bradford, who declines the offer of moving up a division. So next he goes for

Sean O’Driscoll, recently sacked from Nottn.Forest, who also declines the offer and opts for Bristol City instead, who are currently bottom of the championship. Now we hear Oyston has identified Peter Houston (Peter who??) as a possible choice. He is currently in charge of Dundee Utd, but after reading some of the fan websites the majority of fans up there aren’t bothered whether he leaves or not.

 So, how is this all going to end? Your guess is as good as mine. We’re fast becoming the laughing stock in the managerial stakes. Perhaps Oyston’s tight-fisted approach to everything he does has finally been acknowledged.

 Karl Oyston is the original “Marmite Boy”. He’s never going to be a pro-active football club chairman. Most fans distrust what the Oyston’s say because of all the false promises they have spouted over the years. Too many to mention in this small blog, but enough to fester in the minds of the most loyal of Pool fans.

 It’s sad to think that just recently we were experiencing the excitement of the premiership, which so nearly happened again last season. Yet here we are struggling to keep a mid-table championship position, managerless and in danger of possibly slipping closer to the drop zone than a play-off position.

Steve Thompson is again in temporary charge and will pick tomorrow’s cup-replay team to face Fulham. Unfortunately, the FA Cup has lost that special place for me. I would sooner we concentrate on improving our league position rather than having a cup run.

 

Up the mighty Pool, let’s keep the faith.



The new reign has started......

A new managerial era has started here at Bloomfield Rd with the appointment of Michael Appleton as the new man in charge. He’s quickly brought in Ashley Westwood as his first team coach, with the purpose of getting the players fitter and improving our defence. Some fans are getting a bit irate about Westwood coming in and taking over Steve Thompson’s role. Well I would have thought that’s for the manager to decide and no one else. When a new bloke takes over they always bring in their own staff, why should it be any different here. For me Thommo has had his chance and although officially he is still classed as assistant manager I think his influence will start to disappear once Appy moulds the team more to his liking.

Appy has already identified areas for improvement including fitness levels and our defensive failings. It seems under Ollie, especially when it appeared he was losing interest, fitness levels and training weren’t as good as they should have been. These contributed to why the team were conceding late goals and matches in recent months. Most of us have been screaming long enough for someone to come in and improve the defence, because under Ollie/Thommo this was an area that suffered and consequently contributed to us losing our premiership status. Yes, Ollie brought us exciting, roller-coasting type of football, which for the neutrals was great to watch. But for us who travelled around the country it was also extremely frustrating watching us throw away games because we couldn’t defend to save our lives. Even this season we have lost games to teams, which we would have steamrollered earlier.

So, since Ollie left, we lost to Derby Co, away 4-1 (absolute nightmare) we have beaten Sheffield Wed away 2-0 (incidently when Thommo was in charge) and drew last Saturday 2-2 at home against Bolton (first game Appy in charge.) The good thing about the Bolton game was we came back twice from being behind, but really a draw at home is 2 points dropped. Again this was a problem in our premiership days too.

Appy is determined to trim the squad down from the current 45 players on the books. This was another problem caused by the chairman not negotiating deals with players Ollie had identified as his first choices. So instead of signing one quality player, we ended up with signing three cheaper but poorer options instead. Hence, a top heavy squad of players who will never get a game, because they don’t possess the quality that’s needed.

Next game is away against a struggling Bristol City. This will give us a good idea of whether the improvement has already started, because I would guarantee we would lose this game if Ollie was still in charge. Why? Because our confidence had gone along with the enthusiasm Ollie once had for the club. That’s why it’s more important than anything we get behind the new man and his staff and create the 12^th man again.

Our talisman has left the building.....

 

The man who did the impossible by getting us in and nearly keeping us in the premiership has gone. Us Pool fans are suffering a mixture of emotions at the moment. The majority of us loved the guy. He brought a brand new exciting style of football which made people worldwide take notice of Blackpool FC. Unfortunately towards the end of his 3 years with us you could see that enthusiasm he created within the club and fans was no longer there. His constant battles with the chairman finally wore him down and that takes some doing with an optimist like Ollie. Yes, I firmly put the blame totally at the door of the chairman. Time and time again, Ollie worked hard to put together names of players he wanted to sign to make us a consistent, potent force, only for the chairman to scupper the negotiations. We then ended up with players even Ollie couldn’t do anything with and so now we’re struggling to maintain a mid-table championship place. Saturday’s demoralising 4-1 defeat by a very ordinary Derby County side proved how far we’ve dropped since the start of the season.

I wish Ollie all the very best because he did as much as he possibly could to improve Blackpool FC and for that I will always be eternally grateful.

I would like to see Owen Coyle take over as the new manager, because he is a born winner. I know Steve Thompson wants the job, but I feel he will not be able to get the best out of the current players or the experience to attract the type of player we need. I also feel he hasn’t the strength to take on the chairman.

Watch out for the next thrilling episode of who takes over from our departed talisman…….

Everything 'cept our just desserts.

That was one game that got away. How we didn’t grab all three points against Brighton I’ll never know, but how many times do you see a side dominate a game and yet not get what they deserved. This was a better all-round performance by the Pool, with everyone playing their part. What a pity a silly defensive mix-up nearly cost us the game. I thought Broadfoot had a good game and perhaps was unlucky his backward header lacked the power to get back to Gilks. But even so, I thought Gilks should have taken more responsibility and grabbed the ball quicker because he was in a better position to deal with it. Watching the ball trickle over the line was sickening, so it doesn’t matter what a manager does he has no control over situations like this. The crowd played their part because they could see the effort the players were putting in and when Grandin score a deserved equaliser you could feel the tension in the ground lift. But despite all our dominance we still couldn’t put the game away. Shame really, but at least we’re starting to put some good football together again, which is encouraging. The next two games against Derby Co and Sheff. Wed are both away, should make interesting viewing. Both opponents will prove whether or not our current improvement will continue. Just wish we had Kevin Phillips back to his old scoring ways, because I don't think Nathan Delfouneso is the answer to our goal drought.

Where to from here?

Have you noticed the similarities in the way Pool and the current England side play? Both teams lack the ability to move the ball forward quickly and rely on passing sideways and backwards too many times without getting anywhere. Both have shaky defences and are suspect at set pieces, unable to mark properly and win headers. Players are getting picked, even though you know they are not good enough because there are no others coming through to take their place. I didn’t think I’d ever say this under Ian Holloway, but like Roy Hodgson’s side we are boring to watch and too predictable. Blackpool are carrying too many players who are well past their sell-by date. You would think after playing together for so long they would have an understanding with each other, but you’d be wrong. Yes, we have some talented young players, which is encouraging, but some of them lack consistency.

I realised our start to the season was a false dawn. Yes, we were getting the results, but apart from a couple of games I felt the scores flattered mediocre performances. Yet again today, against a managerless Burnley, we never looked like winning the game. Burnley are a typical mid-table championship side who have been leaking more goals than they have been scoring and yet they managed to prise open our defence time and time again and eke out 1-0 win. A score line made to look a lot closer than it was mainly thanks to a much improved performance by Matt Gilks.  We only looked half decent in last 20 minutes following the substitutions, but our efforts quickly dried up as the game petered out.

Ollie for me is a legend, but I am now for the first time wondering if his reign at Blackpool has run its course. The way we played, which excited everyone is fading fast. We have failed to strengthen a defence, which frankly has struggled since the premiership. The goals have dried up too. Where once we were scoring for fun, now we can’t even find the net. I just think we look like a side that’s lost its way and our slipping down the division will not help our confidence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



It was a dream....

.....yes it was a dream after all. There we were a few weeks back looking down on all the plebby teams below us thinking we're automatic promotion candidates now. 4 games played, 4 games won, 12 points, Ollie and the boys are unbeatable, confidence sky high. Fast forward to the present and we look a whole lot different. We can't score, the team changes game by game and more worryingly we can't stop shipping goals. I'm sorry to go harping on about our fragile defence but it is pretty dire at the moment, in fact, it's been dire for a very long time.

 

Personally, I would be build the defence around Alex Baptiste, who for me has been the most consistent defender we've had for ages. Crainey would still get in despite his lack of pace, but I would like to have a bit more competition for him. As far as Ian Evatt is concerned, I feel it's time he moved on. I also think Eardley should be moved on, because he is the weakest link in the current defensive chain. He quickly gets disheartened when things are going badly and his body language proves it. Cathcart, although currently injured doesn't inspire me either, but until we bring in some fresh blood I think him & Baptiste work better together than with Evatt.

 

You see, I have always worked on the principle of if you have a strong defence, you'll have a strong team capable of winning more losing. Whereas at the moment opposing teams have worked out our weaknesses and exploit them to the hilt.

 

We play Hull on Tuesday night who are another side who like us have slipped up of late, so the outcome of this match should be interesting.

Miserable nights watching.....

Well that must rank as one of our worst performances for a long time. I think some players have been suckered into believing all the hype about us being automatic candidates for promotion. After last night they should think again. I have said for a long time now our defence is just not good enough. What went wrong last night was obvious to any football watcher. Huddersfield came with a plan to harrass us and exploit our weakness at the back. They came with an ex-manager and two ex-players. Not only that they knew how to beat us. They relied on the long ball because they knew we were uncomfortable defending this type of play. Their defence marshalled by Peter Clarke won everything in the air and gave our forwards no time to settle. Whereas our defence stood off their forwards, only won a few headers, gave away silly fouls, which in turn set-up dangerous set-pieces, which we all know we cannot defend to save our lives. Messrs Gilks, Crainey, Baptiste, Evatt and in particular that most inconsistent Eardley should go back to defensive school and learn how to defend. Perhaps watch repeated videos of how Huddersfield defended. I also thought we were badly let down by our non-firing midfield led by "captain" Barry Ferguson. I can't for the life of me understand why Ollie thought he should be made captain. I have yet to see him put in anything like a decent performance since we signed him. His distribution last night was dire and as far creativity is concerned it's non-existent. Osbourne and Gomez were no better,  their inability to help the defence and forwards never materialised. We only looked a little more confident when Ferguson and Gomez were replaced, but by the then it was far too late to get anything ouf of the game. It made miserable viewing for any Blackpool fan.

 

So, where do we go from here? Well hopefully this was a one-off, although  we have rode our luck more than once already this season.  Ollie's objective must now be to focus on signing at least 3 new defenders rather than concentrating on more midfielders and strikers. It's no use having a glut of attacking players if the defence can't stop conceding goals. Last night's game reminded me of the home game against Wigan in the premiership when they were bottom of the league. Similar to Huddersfield they bullied us out of the way and beat us 3-0, which more or less doomed us to relegation. I remember the game vividly, because I left the ground at half-time unable to endure watching it any longer.

 

Next game up is against Cardiff away. No idea what to expect, but that's supporting Blackpool for you. I hope my next report will be more upbeat.

 

I'd like to hear what other people think about the season so far. So please get in touch.