BFTG - Blackpool

[PieEater]

Well it was a nice day out in sunny Blackpool spoiled by the result. You could see it coming but the goal was like comedy slapstick, a misplaced pass then Bridge, Morrison and Pearce fall over like skittles in sequence. We totally threw the game away because we were clearly the better team but couldn't break them down, although pretty well everything we did in the final third was dire. We need more ideas upfront.

For a home team, Blackpool had everyone behind the ball and looked to hit us on the break or nick something from a set piece. I bet they couldn't believe their luck the way we gifted them the goal.

Despite all our play we had no edge and very few chance except for a short spell at the end of the first half. Few players stood out except maybe Bridge who apart from getting tackled and falling over for the goal had a pretty good game.

Highlights were Old Speckled Hen at £1.79 a pint and a pint giant hot dog and chips for just over £4.

[Will95]

A poor, poor game as a spectator, dull all the way through, excluding the last couple of minutes of the first half. Neither side showed any urgency leading to such a slow game and a subdued atmosphere. Neither team looked good either, both very, very average, but it was by far the worst performance of the four games so far.

Jem and Blackman very easily stood out as the best two players of ours on the pitch today to me, great improvement from Blackman. Drenthe was good again, but did some bad things in equal measure.

Their goal came from some slips, very annoying to give away, a 0-0 would have been fair today.

Blackpool's crowd was very loud when they sang.

To the guy two rows behind me - yes Kanu had a bad game, but in no way is he a waste of money, so don't get angry at me when I tell you he's from our academy so he didn't cost us anything and start ranting at me about his wages! He earns a lot less than Pog that's for sure and he's a lot better player! (In my opinion anyway)

On the subject of Pog, why is he still at the club? It only took him five minutes to be one of the worst players today.

[Cripple Creek]

Why can't Anton subsidise us for a pint, a giant hot dog and chips for four quid, that's what I want to know.

[Ian Royal]

Well it was a nice day out in sunny Blackpool spoiled by the result. You could see it coming but the goal was like comedy slapstick, a misplaced pass then Bridge, Morrison and Pearce fall over like skittles in sequence. We totally threw the game away because we were clearly the better team but couldn't break them down, although pretty well everything we did in the final third was dire. We need more ideas upfront.

For a home team, Blackpool had everyone behind the ball and looked to hit us on the break or nick something from a set piece. I bet they couldn't believe their luck the way we gifted them the goal.

Despite all our play we had no edge and very few chance except for a short spell at the end of the first half. Few players stood out except maybe Bridge who apart from getting tackled and falling over for the goal had a pretty good game.

Highlights were Old Speckled Hen at £1.79 a pint and a pint giant hot dog and chips for just over £4.

Cheers, that's pretty much how it sounded too. Sorry you got rewarded for travelling with a poor showing and bad result.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

boooooooooooo BRIDGE sort it m8

[SLAMMED]

That was an awful goal to give away. A silly pass from Denthe, a dreadful touch from Bridge and a slip from Morrison to top it off.

And how we didn't score when the ball went across the face of goal I will never know.

[kwik-silva]

When Bridge saw the man coming he should have just tried to put a head on it. Awful goal.

[PieEater]

On reflection I was probably too dismissive of Blackpool. They did a lot of things better than us, closing down, passing, winning most headers and second balls. They took pretty well their only chance. By comparison we continually over hit or misplaced passes, spooned crosses into the box that the keeper could comfortably catch and our passing and movement was pretty static. Apart from the goalmouth scramble early in the second half I can't recall their keeper making a save, similarly McCarthy was untroubled.

It always seems to be the case at grounds like this where there is no space and teams work hard against us, I think there's a good chance we'll see the same next week at Yeovil.

[Uke]

Not the result we wanted, we must learn from this

We move on...

[kwik-silva]

#BuildEvolveSucceed

[URZZZZZ]

I heard something about the players not acknowledging the fans after the game, this true?

[The Quiet Man]

Disappointing day as the Adkins revolution gets to look more and more like the Rogers revolution. Soft defensive goal given away, lots of meaningless tippy tappy possession in your own half, and poor finishing. The main problem, a lack of any central forward presence that worries defenders and could score goals.

Having mentioned Rogers it would be fair to say that a lot of the first half actually reminded me of McDermott with lots of pointless channel hoof as Blackpool denied us the space to play. Blackpool had a couple of decent moments, we had a flurry of 5 minutes of pressure at the end of the half with Karacan hitting the bar. Second half we had more possession and time on the ball but the end result was one apparently good chance for ALF and err that's it. Lots of passing triangles miles from goal, I would of said all foreplay no penetration except it mainly seemed like self abuse. Could we play one more triangle before giving the opposition or our own goal keeper the ball then yes we could. Blackpool never looked like scoring 2nd half so we created the chance for them from what seemed like the 20th needless cross field pass we played.

Players: McCarthy - dodgy on some crosses no chance for the goal 6. Gunter - poor defensively but OK going forward 5. Bridge - OK but should have done more with the pass that led to their goal 6. Morrison - average in the extreme 5. Pearce - reasonably sound but him and Morrison just aren't a good partnership as they are both cumbersome and slow 6. Guthrie - a couple of Hollywood balls, a couple of crap balls by and large Blackpool left him to play with himself miles from goal no real impact on the game 5. Karacan - worked hard and ran around a lot so nothing new 7. McCleary - apparently he was on the pitch but I didn't notice him until he was subbed 3. Robson-Kanu - so one footed he should of come with a parot on his shoulder and a crutch, perhaps he did as he didn't contribute anything to the attack but must of earned a head pat from Nigel wiith the number of lay backs and sideways passes he contributed 3. Blackman - he ran around and lost the ball and then he ran around some more, looked better our wider than up the middle, but not so much as you want him in the team 3. Drenthe - without a strong central presence he is wasted in side as there is no pocket of space to exploit and you end up wandering to no effect, looked a lot better in a fixed position out wide and was our best attacker, an award that didn't take much winning in this game 6. Subs ALF one half chance and not a lot else 5. Williams no real impact 4. Pog - may have a career on the beach in Blackpool ferrying children 0.

Looked very mid table today without any ability to grind like a McDermott side - a new quality striker is an absolute priority for this team if Adkins is to succeed just like it was for Rogers otherwise it may be the same fate. Most Championship sides will grind the game and wait for us to screw up we could and should be doing better than that.

[sandman]

Disappointing day as the Adkins revolution gets to look more and more like the Rogers revolution. Soft defensive goal given away, lots of meaningless tippy tappy possession in your own half, and poor finishing. The main problem, a lack of any central forward presence that worries defenders and could score goals.

Having mentioned Rogers it would be fair to say that a lot of the first half actually reminded me of McDermott with lots of pointless channel hoof as Blackpool denied us the space to play. Blackpool had a couple of decent moments, we had a flurry of 5 minutes of pressure at the end of the half with Karacan hitting the bar. Second half we had more possession and time on the ball but the end result was one apparently good chance for ALF and err that's it. Lots of passing triangles miles from goal, I would of said all foreplay no penetration except it mainly seemed like self abuse. Could we play one more triangle before giving the opposition or our own goal keeper the ball then yes we could. Blackpool never looked like scoring 2nd half so we created the chance for them from what seemed like the 20th needless cross field pass we played.

Players: McCarthy - dodgy on some crosses no chance for the goal 6. Gunter - poor defensively but OK going forward 5. Bridge - OK but should have done more with the pass that led to their goal 6. Morrison - average in the extreme 5. Pearce - reasonably sound but him and Morrison just aren't a good partnership as they are both cumbersome and slow 6. Guthrie - a couple of Hollywood balls, a couple of crap balls by and large Blackpool left him to play with himself miles from goal no real impact on the game 5. Karacan - worked hard and ran around a lot so nothing new 7. McCleary - apparently he was on the pitch but I didn't notice him until he was subbed 3. Robson-Kanu - so one footed he should of come with a parot on his shoulder and a crutch, perhaps he did as he didn't contribute anything to the attack but must of earned a head pat from Nigel wiith the number of lay backs and sideways passes he contributed 3. Blackman - he ran around and lost the ball and then he ran around some more, looked better our wider than up the middle, but not so much as you want him in the team 3. Drenthe - without a strong central presence he is wasted in side as there is no pocket of space to exploit and you end up wandering to no effect, looked a lot better in a fixed position out wide and was our best attacker, an award that didn't take much winning in this game 6. Subs ALF one half chance and not a lot else 5. Williams no real impact 4. Pog - may have a career on the beach in Blackpool ferrying children 0.

Looked very mid table today without any ability to grind like a McDermott side - a new quality striker is an absolute priority for this team if Adkins is to succeed just like it was for Rogers otherwise it may be the same fate. Most Championship sides will grind the game and wait for us to screw up we could and should be doing better than that.

Must have been difficult to go all that way and lose to Blackpool. Especially when you would have expected us to win and indeed we possibly should have won.

[parky]

I heard something about the players not acknowledging the fans after the game, this true?

Gunter, Jem, and Williams were the only ones that I saw acknowledge the fans. Although I was very much on my way out once the final whistle went.

As for the game, we were allowed to play and pass it around at the back but got put under more pressure by Blackpool once we moved into the final third then they shut us down and we couldn't find that killer pass that would get a striker a chance on goal. Any chances we did have came from midfielders having a go from distance, as has been the case in all the games this season with the exception of Watford. The lack of creativity and finishing we possess in the final third is worrying. On a couple of occasions communication between players seemed lacking, passes were being made to an empty space where a player just was or hadn't made a run to. Defensively however we looked solid, I thought Gunter played well and stopped Delfouneso achieving anything. We dealt with everything that they had well, aside from the mistake that led to the goal. Without that mistake we would be discussing a boring 0-0 in which two teams shut each other out and couldn't really get going.

Clean sheets will come, as it should of done yesterday but I feel it is going forward and actually scoring goals against teams in the division that will seek to shut us down and not let us play is where our problems lie at the moment.

[Dan - B15 Royal]

Bad day at the office all round. We were not at our best and a goalless draw would of been a fair result.
To shoot ourselves in the foot the way we did is hard to take, and made the journey home most miserable! We just cant giving out these points to the opposition on a weekly basis, first Watford now Blackpool....who will be next I ask myself?

Observations I noticed today having been so close to the pitch...

Although Morro was captain, it was Pearce doing all the shouting and organising the back four. This included Pearce trying to rally the troops after the comical goal we conceded, and at the set plays he was telling kanu, Bridge et al who to mark, and was making the calls to the back four when to drop deep/push up. Generally our defensive line worked well as a unit yesterday, with the exception of the goal. Morro was very quiet all game and for club captain I expected more leadership from him.

We needed width yesterday and Kanu went wondering infield far to often for me hunting the ball. The times he was wide he linked up well with Gunter and Guithrie who started most passing movements from deep once more.

If it wasn't obvious before to the manager, it is now. We need a new Centre forward. If this will happen im not sure, but if it doesn't im concerned where we will get enough goals throughout the season to challenge for promotion.

Wayne Bridge panics whenever he has the ball, I noticed this against Watford & again at Blackpool. He often just punts the ball forward hopelessly. His first touch is dire. No surprise he got caught for the goal. For me I would like to see Kelly given another go at Left Back

Blackman... did he play? I hardly noticed him. He does keep running I will give him that but he was not involved in the game. Ricardo Fuller for Blackpool was playing a similar role and was holding the ball up and running at Pearce/Morro at pace and causing havoc on most occasions. Fuller also was bringing Blackpool players into their attacks, we didn't get that from Blackman, as he never got into he game.

Fans, A very decent turnout on bank holiday weekend & Reading Festival. Not much to cheer about all game but when we were in control of the game and were threatening the pools goal the vocal backing was good.

[handbags_harris]

I'll just put this here. Saves me typing it all out again...

http://www.thetilehurstend.com/2013/8/2 ... tch-report

[Muskrat]

We just cant giving out these points to the opposition on a weekly basis, first Watford now Blackpool....who will be next I ask myself?

In answer to your question - Peterborough (cup) and then Yeovil.

But what I am interested in is this. Did we pass it out from that back, did we keep good posession of the football, did we play through the thirds of the pitch and were we effective in both 18 yard boxes (obvs the last one is rhetorical) but if we did those things I'm happy, after all it's not a results business is it?

Oh hang on a minute...

[Millsy]

I'll just put this here. Saves me typing it all out again...

http://www.thetilehurstend.com/2013/8/2 ... tch-report

Good write-up thanks.

[RoyallyFcuked]

I'll just put this here. Saves me typing it all out again...

http://www.thetilehurstend.com/2013/8/2 ... tch-report

Great report, thanks.

I wondered why Adkins had changed formation again, after having 2 upfront v Watford (a far more dangerous team) we should have been looking to really attack and crush a mediocre Blackpool side. I think playing 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 was a mistake.

[Ian Royal]

He's quite obviously got an away plan, and will tailor things to the opposition.