I was looking forward to today – watching a team with a £15m
winger in it is exactly what excites me about promotion to the Championship
Before the game I took control at the bar – if you don’t
serve draft ale for God’s sake learn how to pour a can. I took it off the oaf
and saw this as a positive sign for the day – a bit more proactive than my
usual tutting quietly.
This was reinforced by the appearance of the huge AFCB flag
I’d heard so much about. The flag itself was excellent and a great idea – the performance
of the NS, me included, was terrible.
If I was the flag owner I’d be keeping us all behind to
practise what the bloody hell we had to do and where the flag was meant to go.
The game kicked off with Arter missing, replaced by O’Kane.
In the first minute Pitman chipped the ball over from the right and Grabban
shut his eyes and hoped for the best – his header just went wide of the right
post.
Exactly the start we wanted. A sign of good intention. More
pressure from AFCB followed until Blackpool finally broke their shackles on 7
minutes when good work down the left caused Francis to find row Z
Blackpool sent in a long throw which looped over the masses,
bounced in the area and the always troublesome Fuller stooped and headed the
ball low past Allsop into the bottom left corner.
What happened there? It looked like Allsop was DJ’ing a game
of musical statues and he’d forgotten to turn the music on. Howe, like the rest
of us, must have winced at that. 0-1
The crowd turned up the noise and the players responded. It
took 5 minutes for AFCB to think – that long throw thing, that worked for them,
why don’t we try it?
A long throw from the left was flicked on at the near post
and Grabban was in the right place at the right time to sweep the ball in 1-1
Two minutes later and Pitman was sent through. Realising
that amongst his many fine attributes, pace is very much at the back of the
queue he cleverly back-heeled the ball into Grabban who’s shot was deflected
over.
At least we were actually shooting – maybe that’s the Rantie
effect….?
Bournemouth’s tails were very much up and were heaping the
pressure on with Grabban going close twice in quick succession.
I’m not blaming Grabban (on his own) but Bournemouth’s goals
to shots ratio HAS to improve – but the positive side, there can’t be many
teams creating as many opportunities. We just seemed to lack the killer final ball
/ shot to polish off good build up play.
Blackpool were playing on the break and with Ince in the
team they were always going to be a threat. I have to say the guy looked class.
I reckon he could stand up on a roller-coaster wearing a waiter’s outfit
holding a tray full of champagne and he wouldn’t spill a drop – his balance was
that good
It was he that had the best chance in the remainder of the
half (against the run of play) as he was put through and bore down on goal.
Allsop made himself as big as possible (not that difficult for him, admittedly)
but was still powerless as the ball was hit past him – but to Bournemouth’s
relief it struck the base of the right post and eventually away to safety
Half Time 1-1
What we needed now was to start the second half like we did
the first. Which we did, by letting in an early goal – THAT’S NOT WHAT I
MEANT!!!!
A corner in the 47th minute was glanced in by
Bishop, who, from my seat, looked completely unmarked.
I don’t know who’s in charge of our set play training – but he
needs a kick up the arse!! 1-2
The big talking moment came in the 58th minute as
Robinson cynically brought a full flight Fraser down to earth. A second yellow
(I must have missed the first) meant he had to go.
He did argue that he couldn’t have done it as his arms were
in the air – much like saying I didn’t punch him in the throat and my feet were
still – the referee didn’t buy it and quite frankly I hope he’s embarrassed by
the effort.
What we needed now was to raise the tempo. Before the
sending off Blackpool were amazing at pressing us on the ball but they were
never going to do that now, so we had to shift them about as much as possible.
What actually happened is that with the exception of Grabban
and Fraser, we actually slowed down ?? I felt so sorry for Grabban as his
mid-week trip to Harry Potter World so badly back-fired as Ward couldn’t see
the million runs he made, begging for the ball to be played over the top,
because he was wearing his cloak of invisibility he’d bought in the gift shop.
That can be the only reason I can think of why, instead of
making that pass, he chose to pass it short to MacDonald who would pass it
straight back to him, at a rate of knots.
Grabban must have been knackered by the end of the game
I love MacDonald, not quite enough to let him go with my
wife (as the song goes) but today he seemed to have the turning circle of an
Addison (biggest unit of measurement I could think of). If the ball came to him
with his back to goal, he passed it back, every time - so weird because when running forward he
was excellent.
The last 30 minutes was all Bournemouth but we just could
not finish it off. Shots were either fluffed of brilliantly blocked and the
rebounds never fell our way.
I’d love to see the match stats because it that one-sided as
Blackpool defended their hearts out. I have to give them credit, down to 10 men
they were calm on the ball and seemed to be just one step ahead of every
attack, thwarting everything we threw at them
Blackpool could even have finished it off with 8 minutes as
their 14 was put through, only to strike it wide
The last 10 minutes, including 5 minutes of extra time, it
looked we had a team of Super Mario’s on the pitch as surely only plumbers
could get hold of that many kitchen sinks to throw
Pitman even had the ball in the net in the last minute with
a close range poke but it was ruled offside – I’d like to say I’ll look
carefully at that tonight on the FLS – but I know I’m too bad a loser to stay
up that late to watch us lose
FULL TIME 1-2
Summary – For those who have been unable to get to the
Watford or Huddersfield games – that was your insight into what has been
happening. Some great play, lots of chances created, 1 goal. Blackpool, 2 shots
on target, 2 goals.
We are so close to being something great and with Rantie and
Ritchie in the team I really do believe that we will give every other team in
the league plenty of headaches.
I’d also like to see the fitness coach work them a little
harder as every team we have played seem to press much better than we do.
One word on tactics – fully agreed with taking Pugh off for
Thomas, but why repeat Watford’s mistake of putting Pitman out on the wing? I
know Grabban has been scoring, but surely it’s horses for courses. Grabban can
run, Pitman is never going to skip past any defenders and run to the line –
Grabban on the left made more sense to me
Saying all that, this is a learning experience and every
game I do believe we are getting better – roll on Tuesday – let Barnsley feel
our wrath
Star Man – Cook – Very cool in defence and put in 3 of the
best timed sliding tackles as last man in defence I have seen – and all that
against a winger destined for bigger and better things
North Stand
South Stand
Main Stand
East Stand
Blackpool Support
Entertaining report - enjoyed that even if the result was not so pleasing.
ReplyDelete