Blackpool get 4 points out of 6.

The Seasiders last two games have been played at home, which has been a rare occurance so far this season. Last Monday evening we welcomed

West Bromwich Albion (the Baggies) to Bloomfield Rd and what was anticipated as an entertaining game turned out to be the opposite. They had two players sent off, which reduced their options and resulted in a very strange game. The first sending off was followed by referee Michael Oliver awarding us a penalty, which Charlie Adam converted, although Carson the baggies goalie nearly saved it. The second sending off, a reckless lunge by Gonzalo Jara on Luke Varney was well deserved and was a result of him being annoyed by the first sending off. What that did made the remainder of the game an unbalanced affair. The home crowd were getting more and more restless at the team's inability to capitalise on their two player advantage, which seem to add to the player's nervousness.  Although we went 1-0 up through the penalty, it took until the 62 minute for us to make it 2-0 when Luke Varney scored. This seemed to give us the impetus to go forward more and we had a number of chances to improve our goal difference, but to no avail because of poor finishing. This poor finishing nearly resulted in the nine men of West Brom getting something out of the game when they pulled a goal back through a great individual effort by Mulumbu to make it 2-1. Thank goodness we managed to hold on and register our first home win since returning to the Premiership and a valuable 3 points.

In contrast, the game yesterday against Everton had everything the Baggies game didn't have. It was entertaining, end to end stuff, full of good football. The Toffee's start to the season has been a slow  one. They have struggled to get going, but recent results have improved to such an extent that they have gone on an unbeaten run. Their team included internationals from all parts of the world unlike their hosts. That said, the game was a close affair. It was also good to see Seamus Coleman return albeit in a blue shirt rather than a tangerine one. He had a superb match topped off with a second equalising goal. 16,000 fans packed Bloomfield Rd and created a fantastic atmosphere, which encouraged both teams to produce a nail-biting game. We took the lead through a superb Neil Eardley free-kick on the edge of their box. Unfortunately our lead only lasted two minutes before Tim Cahill headed in an equaliser from a Yakubu cross. Both sides went into half time level at 1-1. Ollie had given Keith Southern a start, mainly because Everton was his first club and David Moyes was and still is the manager there. Unfortunately Keith struggled to make a mark and was substituted shortly after the restart. On came Phillips, Grandin and Harewood, which gave us the impetus we lacked earlier. The changes resulted in us taking the lead again through man of the match, David Vaughan. But yet again our lead only lasted a couple of minutes before Seamus levelled. Opinion was that Matt Gilks could have done a lot better by keeping the shot out but let it squirm under his body. Everton had a couple of chances to win the game after that as did the Pool, with Marlon Harewood scoring what looked like our winner, only for referee Andre Marriner to disallow it for a very innocuous "push" by Marlon on Jagielka. On reflection I think a draw was a fair result and a great advertisement for entertainment.

Wayne Rooney et deux.

Well, 24 hours on, the the Rooneygate saga takes an unexpected turn. After harping on about wanting to leave, critizing the club about lacking ambition, disrespecting his manager by putting out a statement saying he wasn't injured when Fergie said he was and disrespecting his fellow players by intimating they aren't up to his standard, he has decided to sign a new 5-year deal. Rooney might think he has managed to get what he was hoping for i.e. better wage deal, longer contract and a commitment by the club to ship out players no longer needed and replace them with new quality players. This is where I think Sir Alex and the United board have pulled off a better deal for themselves than Rooney has. I say this because Fergie is not in the habit of forgiving players who step out of line and Rooney has done that big time. United now have the upper hand. If Rooney had been allowed to go in the transfer window or in the summer, United would have got peanuts or nothing for him. Now they can put him up for sale and demand a sum equivalent to what they value him at. It would not surprise me if they did eventually sell him because like I said earlier Fergie is not the type of manager who likes to be upstaged by a player, especially  one as young and immature as Rooney. After all, Rooney's form has been very poor since he broke his foot last season and his confidence is shot at too. It would be ironical if one of the new players who eventually arrive at United in the new year displaces Rooney. You should always be wary of what you wish for Wayne, because life sometimes has a habit of coming back and bite you on the bum.

Wayne Rooney.

I think Wayne Rooney has embarked on that slippery downward spiral, which always seems to affect individuals, who on the surface have everything. He is well paid, plays at the top level for one of the biggest clubs in the world, has a loyal wife and young child, lives in a house that he could only have dreamed of owning whilst growing up in Liverpool as a child. He has a natural footballing ability, which has earned him a regular England place and praise throughout the football world and yet he is on the verge of throwing it all away. We have seen over the years sportsmen with undoubted natural ability like Rooney waste their talent. I have noticed since his move from Everton to Manchester United he appearances have not been as consistent as when he played for the Toffees. His form for England too have been very inconsistent of late, which was highlighted even more during the disappointing England performances during the last World Cup. He seemed to be at odds with everything including the English fans, who he thought had no right to show their disapproval at him or his team mates, even though they thoroughly deserved to be booed off at the time. His comments levelled at the fans at the end of the game did nothing to enhanced his reputation with them, but simply made matters worse, culminating in him issuing a begrudging apology through the appropriate official channels. The fans including myself knew there was something not quite right about Rooney, which was clearly affecting his game? Since then his reputation has been tarnished even further with revelations about him having alleged illicit affairs with prostitutes and paying for their services in hotel rooms. He was also alleged to have paid £200 for a pack of Marlboro cigarettes for one of the prostitutes. This in itself proves he has lost the value of money and he doesn’t need to work as hard with his game as he once did. Not being a fan of Manchester United, mainly because their manager thinks they have a God given right to win every game and referees should not have the audacity to penalise him or his team. Apparently Rooney told Sir Alex that he no longer wanted to stay at Old Trafford last August, his reasons being that he thought United lacked the ambition of winning trophies. Since then the saga has become more public with statements being issued by Rooney, Ferguson and United trying to put their individual cases over. I have got to say Rooney has managed to alienate himself further and has come across as a greedy mercenary along with his agent. I personally think Rooney will never be able to emulate his earlier success irrespective of where he finally ends up. If he stays in the UK, I can only see Chelsea or Manchester City matching his wage demands, with Chelsea being the slight favourites to sign him. He could go to Italy or Spain, but with his wife indicating that she would not consider moving away because she doesn’t wish to leave her sick sister means his already shaky marriage to finally hit the divorce buffers sooner rather than later should he decide to go. I also think he would not settle abroad, because I do not think he would be capable of mastering a foreign language. So, from going from an exciting young talent at Everton to an over paid, ungrateful individual at United, Rooney has managed to destroy all the hard work he has achieved in a very short time. If his long suffering wife decides to call an end to their marriage, which could still be a possibility, then it wouldn’t matter where he went he would never have the same financial independence as he enjoys now. He also has to prove to prospective buyers he is fit enough to match his and his agent’s overpriced valuation. My advice to him would be, think how lucky you are and appreciate what you’ve already got because you won't get another chance.

Seasider's progress report.

Well it's been a few months since I last "put pen to paper", so I just thought I would share a few things with you. The Mighty Seasiders have made an impact on the Premiership already. Currently lying 10th, having played 8 games, winning three, drawing one and losing four so far. Having been beaten by Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Blackburn, apart from Rovers the defeats were to be expected considering the money these clubs have spent on international players. But when you've got a charismatic manager like Ian Holloway and a team of determined players, as we have, money means nothing. The game against City was televised and brought with it plenty of exposure and compliments from football fans worldwide. We were extremely unlucky not to get at least a point from the game, because we dominated the majority of the game. Our plight wasn't helped by some dubious refereeing decisions, which made the 2-3 scoreline all the more hard to take. The present off-side law is a complete farce. We were denied a perfectly good goal by Gary Taylor-Fletcher(GTF), who was clearly on-side because the referee's assistant flagged Elliot Grandin off-side even though he failed to touch the ball en-route to GTF. Whereas City had a goal by Carlos Tevez allowed even though the cameras clearly showed him to be off-side. Blackpool have had their fair share of bad refereeing decisions over the last few seasons, which makes premiership survival all the more difficult. I just wish we could revert to the old off-side rules, whereby if you were stood in an off-side position irrespective of whether you were interfering with play, you were deemed off-side, end off. Despite the defeats, Blackpool have managed to accrue more points so far than a lot of so called expert pundits thought we would achieve. Our victory at Anfield last week proved we are capable of beating any team on our day. We're selling out our homes games and using all our full away allocations on a regular basis, which is fantastic. The support generated by the fans is one of the best in the country with over 16,000 packing into Bloomfield Rd on Sunday. I am hoping to see all home and away games myself this season. The best ground I've visited so far for fan's accommodation and price of tickets goes to Arsenal. Their team were a pleasure to watch, inflicting the biggest defeat on us so far when we got beat 6-0. Their fans were brilliant too. Our next game is away against Birmingham City, which we are looking forward to very much. If you want to watch free-flowing, entertaining football, watching the Seasiders is the answer.

Oyston quits.

There's never a dull moment when you follow a team like Blackpool. No sooner have we gained promotion to the Premiership and won our first game, we are informed by the club's chairman, Karl Oyston, that he is stepping down as from yesterday. He's been in charge for the last 11 years, during which time we have managed to move the club from oblivion to where we are today. It's not been an easy ride for him, because not being a football fan he ran the club from a business perspective, which alienated him from a lot fans. He ran the club successfully, albeit on a very tight budget, which caused managers under him problems in attracting and recruiting good players to the club. He alone introduced a wage capping system whereby the maximum wage payable to players was in the region of £10k during the playing season and £90 per week out of season. He also stalled with the modernisation of the ground, which made the club a bit of a joke with other clubs, especially when away supporters were housed in a temporary "golf like" stand without a roof, affectionally known as the "Gene Kelly stand" by the home fans  because it left the away supporters out in inclement weather "singing in the rain". So, his epitaph will read, "Good businessman but never truly won the fans over". Very recently he has been stating the reason for considering stepping down was because of his dislike in how agents and players negotiate deals. He alone tried to convince other chairmen to follow his example, but came across a stubborn refusal to entertain his ideas. People felt there were other reasons for him wanting to step down and it now appears that he is facing bankruptcy, which under Premiership rules would disallow him being chairman or a director of the club under "the fit and proper rule". This latest disclosure will add to the distrust a lot of fans have towards the Oystons. Like I said earlier, there is never a dull moment when you follow the Seasiders. Let's hope Ollie sticks to his promise of staying with the club and not do an "Owen Coyle" on us like what at happened at Burnley last season.

Brilliant Blackpool

What a brilliant start to our Premiership campaign. Instead of playing Wigan at home, the game was transferred to the DW stadium because Bloomfield Rd's ground improvements would not be ready in time for the start of the season. So today's 4-0 away victory was all the more sweeter. I was hoping for a least a draw before the start of the game, but to have such an emphatic win was just the start we've dreamed about. In fact we could have scored more goals if we had converted all our chances. Considering the away following of 4,200 were outnumbered three times over by the Wigan supporters the noise generated by us made a mockery of the crowd difference. We sang, clapped and cheered our boys from start to finish. Ollie stuck to his promise of playing attacking football with four forwards up front. This paid dividens for the Seasiders because by half-time we were 3-0 up with goals from Gary Taylor-Fletcher and two from debutant Marlon Harewood. Ollie bloodied other new signings throughout the game. Elliot Grandin was my Man of the Match with a very polished performance. Considering these players only signed for the club this week  is credit to their professionalism. At least we have managed to get a first win under our belt very early on and without conceding a goal. Next up are Arsenal at the Emirates stadium, which will be a true test of our character and one we will be ready for.

House for Sale

It has been six months since we first put our house on the market and after first trying out an on-line estate agent without success, we went with a traditional high street estate agent, again without any success. I have to say both firms have proved to me how inept estate agents are when it comes to selling your most valuable asset. What they are all good at is promoting themselves. They produce all the glossy promotional bumph together with all the  supporting statistical information, comments from their Managing Directors, the success stories and the recommendations from "satisfied" customers. As far as we are concerned, what they say and what they do are miles apart. They all seem to have this third rate approach to "Customer Service", if that? Considering high street agents charge between 1.25% to 2% for selling your property, on average this amounts to between £3k to £5k, depending on what type of property you have. Now, if you were to pay for something costing these amounts for e.g. holiday, furniture etc, you would expect the company providing the goods to treat you with some respect and in the majority of cases this would be true. Not so with estate agents. Oh yes they offer insincere apologies if you point out their shortcomings, but don't expect them to do much more. It's 15 years since we last sold a property and we can honestly say estate agents in our opinion are no better now that they were then. Quick to sign you up and tie you up with a meaningless contract, but for a quick sale, forget it. Ok, I know other people have had success with them and we wish we could say the same, but the service we have received from both sources have been extremely poor. So, having tried the traditional approach we will try and do it ourselves. This is what we are offering any prospective buyers.

This is a genuine opportunity to buy an immaculate detached, three doubled bedroomed house situated in a popular area of Preston. The property has excellent transport links to the City centre and is close to the main Motorway network. There are a wide selection of schools covering all ages, with access to GP and dental surgeries, shops, library, churches, Post Office and a leisure centre nearby. The property has further potential to increase the internal structure to accommodate extra living/bedroom space by utilising the integral garage, something which other owners have done. The outside area has manageable gardens and ample off-street parking for several vehicles. We will consider offers over £165,000 from prospective buyers.

If you are interested just add your comments and we will get back to you. Thanks for looking.