My thoughts so far.....

It's been a while since my last blog, this has been mainly down to me being extremely busy since I moved house. Nevertheless, I've managed to keep tabs on the Mighty Pool. The season has been developing nicely culminating in an easy win over Cardiff City yesterday. Surprisingly, the Bluebirds looked a poor outfit considerly they are third in the league. They must hate playing against us, especially after that fantastic day when we met at Wembley when we beat them to secure our promotion to the Premiership. Still, yesterday's game didn't actually go to plan, mainly due to us taking it a bit too easy at times. We seemed to take our foot of the pedal, which allowed them to come into the game more. But saying that we had a couple of chances to win the game by half time. Dicko, the French guy on loan from Wigan, should have scored when he only had the keeper to beat, but shot wide. If I was being critical I would say we relied too much on the high ball and didn't move the ball quick enough. This allowed them time to close us down. They came into more in the second half and took the lead against the run of play. The Dicko/GTF combination was struggling so Ollie brought on SuperKev and Roman Bedner. What can you say about Kevin Phillips. This guy is absolute class. He can score in any division and can be relied on to change a game. I was dead chuffed when we signed him up, despite his age. You can't put a price on the experience he brings. We might not be the same passing team as we were last season, but we seem to have a better, balanced squad. Although Charlie Adam made things happen last season, he was also the main reason our form dipped this time last year, which ultimately led to us getting relegated. Thankfully, we don't have the same ego problem with players this season. We've now moved up to 4th and seem to be moving into a settled run even though we've been leaving it a little late to get the points. Like most footy fans we're all a bit superstitious, so I won't get carried away with thoughts of promotion back to the premiership, but if Ollie did managed it again surely the England job shouldn't be unthinkable. Although let's just keep things the same for the time being cos I'm loving it. Cup replay against Sheff Wed on Tuesday night and I think it's important to keep the winning run going, so I hope Ollie puts out a strong team. UTMP.

What's happening??

Another very poor game to watch. What's happening, we seem to be light years away from the football we playing last season. What's happened to the Spanish style of football Ollie wanted us to play? Ok, we've lost Adam, Vaughan and Campbell, but hey, the bulk of the side is still the same. Like I've said previously, we've started the season in a steady rather than inspiring way. If I was Ollie I would get my defence sorted out pretty damn quick. We had the worst defensive record last season and although we have not let in as many so far this season we still look extremely shaky. He doesn't seem to have a fixed back four in mind like other teams. I don't think the Cathcart/Evatt combination works and I don't think full back is  Alex Baptiste's best position either.  I would have him as a centre back covering Evatt. Cathcart to often finds himself out of position and he is not commanding enough in the air. I'd have Crainey, Evatt, Baptiste and a n other at right back. Eardley is to inconsistent for me and lets his head drop too quickly when things aren't going his way. Ollie must try someone else in this position who perhaps he hasn't tried before. Midfield is an area we have completely lost this season. Barry Ferguson just does not do it for me at all, neither does Keith Southern both are not creative enough, the latter especially. To be honest I've never been a Southern fan. Ok, he's been a loyal servant, blah, blah, blah. But he has never been a goal scoring midfielder or creative. He only looks comfortable when he passes the ball backwards. What I can't understand is, last year we seemed to have a glut of midfielders all vying for a permanent position there. Yet this season they all seem to have disappeared along with Adam and Vaughan. GTF, again is too inconsistent for me. One week he plays out of his skin and produces a match winning performance and the next like today he's anonymous on the pitch. Kevin Phillips is exempt from criticism because the guy is class and is always likely to produce something out of nothing. At this moment in time I feel we are not good enough to be pushing for promotion and see us having a a pretty uninteresting season. But what do I know. Anybody agree?

Seasiders hit the 'ammers buffers...

Well it was bound to happen, a 4-0 drubbing by a team managed by an ex-manager, namely Sam (I got sacked for not getting them promoted) Allardyce. He's had the hoodoo on us since it happened all those years ago. He was manager at Blackburn last season when they came to Bloomfield Rd and beat us 2-1. It's always the same when someone from the club, whether it's a player or management comments on how well we're going to do prior to a game. It was Steve Thompson who said mid-week how after the international break the players were raring to go and looking forward to the West Ham game. Yeah, well so was I Steve, but that was before the game. After it I was embarrassed and disappointed with the way we played. Even after last week's 5-0 beating of Bristol City I was still apprehensive about our ability to mix it with teams who were not frightened to splash the cash on players. West Ham being one of them. Losing players like Adam, Campbell and Vaughan, who together made things happen for us over the last two seasons was always going to be a blow. For me Barry Ferguson has not made the impact expected and when you team him up with Keith Southern in midfield you just know we're going to struggle. I've always thought our start to the season has been steady but nothing to shout home about. Once again Ollie has been forced to rely on loanees, which on the one hand allows you to get rid of them if they don't perform but on the other hand if they do, their worth increases, which makes it even harder to agree a fee at the end of their loan spell. I thought Ollie's decision to play Baptiste, Hill, Evatt and Crainey in this back four formation to be a mistake. Baptiste and Evatt should be the central partnership with Crainey at left-back and a n other at right back. We play Doncaster at home on Tuesday night and I hope we can put Saturday's game behind us and start to play something like we did last season.

My views so far....

After all the excitement of playing in the premiership and visiting most of the away grounds I feel I am suffering from withdrawal symptoms. This season has got off to a reasonable but not a dynamic start. I'm not sure Ollie has got the balance of the team right yet. Ok, most of the squad is still intact, but we're missing that vital spark that allowed us to play free-flowing attacking football, which made us everyone's second team last season. I'm not totally happy with our midfield, the Ferguson/Southern combination is a very poor replacement for the Vaughan/Adam one. The signing of Kevin Phillips has been a master stroke, the guy is a total professional, with a great work ethic. But he needs better support from others around him. It appears Jonjo Shelvey is joining us on loan from Liverpool for the season so we'll have to see what he brings. What I saw of him at Liverpool didn't really impress me, although competition there is a lot harder than at Blackpool. The last two games against Portsmouth and Coventry were both disappointing as far as I am concerned. This seems to typify how this season we are unable to hold onto a lead or finish opponents off, which in turn makes us susceptible to letting in late goals as we did at Pompey. Bristol City are here tomorrow and gives us an opportunity to get back to winning ways. Although Brett Pitman might try to get one over us, but if we get back to playing attacking football we might just start to get our campaign off the ground.

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.