BFTG - Blackpool

[Ginger Ninjas]

Three points, three goals, clean sheet = job done

Mackie was really lively, deserved his MOM award and standing ovation. Thought Norwood had a better match than his last few. HRK completely anonymous for entire 90 minutes. Blackpool look doomed, and fair to say the Reading defence wasn't particularly tested.

[windermere_royal]

Difficult to gauge that performance given how bad Blackpool were, almost the reverse of last week where we played well and lost 3-0.
nothing at all spectacular, but job done.

[RoyalBlue]

A massive banana skin successfully avoided!

I really like Mackie's passion and determination - and that's not to say he's lacking in footballing ability.

However, at this moment in time Cox must be a red hot favourite for Player of the Season. I am an Adkins supporter but was mystified by his decision to take Cox off. You defend from the front and Cox was doing that extremely well - constantly hassling their defence and causing them all sorts of problems. He also looked the player most likely to create opportunities for us.

[PieEater]

I thought Cox was pants second half and rightly subbed. I don't know if he had a knock or he was tired but he just stopped playing.

It wasn't a 3-0 performance, we were nervy and Blackpool surprisingly good in the early stages. The goal was well taken by Murray, the ball was behind him but he still managed to steer it into the corner. It's long time since we've had a striker that could do that.

The second goal was a goalmouth scramble but credit to Taylor for being alive to the opportunity.

Otherwise I thought our defence was the usual shambles and Blackpool were likely to score, except their strikers were shit (despite them winning pretty well every header)

[Ian Royal]

A massive banana skin successfully avoided!

I really like Mackie's passion and determination - and that's not to say he's lacking in footballing ability.

However, at this moment in time Cox must be a red hot favourite for Player of the Season. I am an Adkins supporter but was mystified by his decision to take Cox off. You defend from the front and Cox was doing that extremely well - constantly hassling their defence and causing them all sorts of problems. He also looked the player most likely to create opportunities for us.

Hard to criticise the decision in retrospect seeing as we went from 1-0 up to 3-0 up afterwards. And it's not an uncommon sub. There's a lot to be said for only asking a hardworking player to put in 60 - 70 minutes.

[Chappers93]

Job done, did enough.

Still looked shaky at the back at times but a clean sheet is good. Thought Akpan was solid as was Norwood. Mackie deserved a goal but missed a sitter, Taylor looked lively when he came on.

Basics were much better this week and hopefully they can build on that.

[bobby1413]

Got annoyed at the guy behind me constantly moaning that we were only 2 goals ahead. He kept saying "this is Blackpool. We should be destroying them"

Also funny listening on radio to people saying they expect us to finish in the play off positions.

Enjoyed the game - not just because of the result

People booing Adkins songs should be ashamed. Whether you disagree or not, booing him is unwarranted. Either support him as he is still the manager or stay quiet - perfectly acceptable.

[winchester_royal]

Awful game of football but job done I suppose. Desperately need some fresh blood in the team, whether that comes through returning players or new signings, as the whole club just feels flat right now.

Mackie bullied their left back but didn't do enough with the ball. Need to get Kanu into the game more.

[PieEater]

Special mention for the lino in the West stand and laterly the ref, total pedants. Blackpool seemed to get every hold or push and the lino was keen to prove some sort of point for Murray.

I have to concur with Mackie being MOTM, first half he had the left back in his pocket and put in some decent crosses. Second half he missed a sitter, I bet he's still reliving that now. He has skill as well as effort that we haven't seen before.

[urz13]

Unbearably dull game, made worse by the fact that we were time wasting from the minute we scored - taking an age over every throw in, free kick or corner. No sign of the passing game - it was all hoofball, and against a better side we would've been there for the taking once again. Still, we got 3 points which I'm delighted about and hopefully we can kick on from this and put a proper stop to this awful form.

That result hasn't, however, changed my opinion even slightly on Adkins. He should still be made to walk.

[windermere_royal]

Unbearably dull game, made worse by the fact that we were time wasting from the minute we scored - taking an age over every throw in, free kick or corner. No sign of the passing game - it was all hoofball, and against a better side we would've been there for the taking once again. Still, we got 3 points which I'm delighted about and hopefully we can kick on from this and put a proper stop to this awful form.

That result hasn't, however, changed my opinion even slightly on Adkins. He should still be made to walk.

is 13 your age lad? all we need is an Italian owner like Leeds huh?

EDIT you joined in 2006 so that will make you 21 now. on that evidence you should damn well grow up

[sandman]

^

Pot, meet Kettle.

[marlowuk]

After our 3-0 loss to Derby I commented that we would play worse and win. That's what we did today. In fact we played a lot worse - probably the worst I've seen us all season. But in the end we desperately needed the 3 points; and we desperately needed the clean sheet!

For the first 10 minutes we were hardly out of our own half and the omens were not good. The remainder of the game was pretty even with both sides showing little quality. Whether on Adkins orders or not we played hardly any passes between our back four and reverted to hoof ball as our main weapon. We were dire! So were Blackpool but at least they tried to play the ball on the ground more than we did. Our first goal was a lucky one (their keeper saved Murray's header and then let it slip from his hands into the net), the next was a scrambled own goal and the last was a soft (from my distant vantage point) penalty. OK - after Derby (when the ball just didn't run for us at all) maybe we deserved the luck today but it was hard to watch.

It's difficult to pick out anyone who deserved MOTM but it was, in my view, a close call between Obita, Akpan and Mackie. Murray scored but frustratingly gave away so many unnecessary niggling fouls in dangerous areas - very stupid of him with our poor record at defending set pieces! I hardly noticed Robson-Kanu was on the pitch such was his non-contribution. Gunter was better defensively I thought although he nearly always pulls out of a 50-50 challenge! Norwood sprayed the ball around - usually effectively. Mackie missed with an easy free header but was very busy in the first half and caused Blackpool problems with his pace and determination. To a lesser extent so did Cox. Hector and Pearce looked more comfortable than of late but that was probably down to Blackpool's lack of ability to take advantage of their openings - and we gave them plenty! Feds made some good saves although his kicking was not as good as usual.

There were glimpses of us playing on the floor at high tempo and when we do that we look good. Sadly it was 'kick-it-anywhere' most of the time and we looked bad.

I keep telling myself that the important thing is the 3 points and the clean sheet. And surely that is correct. So why have I come away from this victory feeling less encouraged than I did after the 3-0 defeat to Derby?

[wingnut]

Yeah pretty poor quality football from both sides. No sign of the passing game Nigel was supposed to bring with him and after making so many comments about long kicks from the keeper it was interesting* to note that Feds hit it long every time he had the ball. So still not sure what Adkins brings to our table really.
Bewildering subs - Hal hardly touched the ball all game and yet stayed on the pitch. Pog currently looks nothing like a professional footballer and shouldn't be anywhere near our first 11.
And the penalty looked like it should've been a free kick on the edge of the area and should've been retaken anyway.

[Martin41]

Win and a clean sheet, which is what we want of course. Awful, awful game though, we would have struggled against better, and hrk......so many chances he's had over the years and still not convinced!

[Royalwaster]

Positives as already said - negatives, we looked very nervy, but that's to be expected .... and our 2 CBs are just not strong enough; Pearce seems to have given up trying to win headers and just uses his arms to try and push the players out of the way. Agree on HRK - I think the only reason he wasn't subbed was that NA forgot he was playing.

Thought Akpan had a pretty decent game though, which is a positive. Obita very good again. Agree also that Mackie looked good, but nothing amazing .... Am a big fan of Mackie - he just wins almost every header, and was wrongly penalised by the ref a lot of the time, when their No.6 (Clarke?) was all over him most of the time and kept getting away with it.

Crowd was very, very quiet today ....

[3points]

Poor performance. No football played. I'm really started to get fed up with Federici just kicking the ball long all the time. As someone else has said, we've stopped trying to play football. And Gunter doesn't have an ounce of footballing sense in his body. How many times does he just pump the ball down the line?

I like Murray's movement though. Always looks like he will score and how noticeable was the difference between him and Pog?

I thought Jake Taylor put in a good performance when he came on. Think he deserves to start ahead of HRK at the moment.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Dreadful game that thankfully we won. Our set pieces are so bloody predictable - mix it up a bit guys!

I'm a bit pessimistic that this will lead to a decent run of both form & points but fingers crossed it will.

Thought Adkins got a lot of vocal support where I was sitting today.

[3points]

Dreadful game that thankfully we won. Our set pieces are so bloody predictable - mix it up a bit guys!

I'm a bit pessimistic that this will lead to a decent run of both form & points but fingers crossed it will.

Thought Adkins got a lot of vocal support where I was sitting today.

Totally agree on our set pieces. We just don't look like scoring and Pearce seems to have lost the ability to header a ball (anywhere on the pitch)

[MmmMonsterMunch]

I pity those poor b@stards that travelled from Blackpool to watch that. Fair play to them as I couldn't stomach it in their position.

Can see them freefalling out of the football league completely.

One of the poorest games I've seen in years. CBA to do ratings - what's the point?