A view from abroad

Posted on September 21, 2011
Filed Under Blackpool FC | 1 Comment

I’m currently travelling around the world, I have two nights left in South America before heading over to New Zealand.

I’ve passed through Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. All the time you are aware of the passion South Americans have for football. Boca v River in Buenos Aries, the passion of Newells Old Boys from Rosario, the endless number of dirt football pitches even at 3,000 meters above sea level in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia.

When any local ask me where I’m from they always respond with the same question, City or United. (I live in Manchester) a surprising number know about the team in Tangerine when I explain I’m a Blackpool fan.

At Boca's Stadium in BA

Every county I’ve been too also has a terrible history or civil wars, dictators etc. The south Americans have a little temper let’s say.

I’ve been keeping up with events at home, the results, the lack of signing, fans wanting to know where the money has gone.

All I can say is it’s a good job that Blackpool aren’t based in Argentina or Chile as there would have been full scale rioting, instead everyone has hit the message boards to display their anger.

However….

If I had been in deepest, darkest Amazon Jungle and could only receive scores then its been a good start to the season, 12 points on the board from 7 games and in 7th place.

Things could be worse…. it will be interesting to see how we fair in the next few months as I travel in New Zealand!

A season break for me

Posted on June 2, 2011
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So after 15 or so seasons it’s time for a year out. They’ll be no updates on the blog for a year as I’m off travelling round the world. I’ll be stopping off in South America, NZ, Fiji, Aus and South East Asia.

Let’s hope we’ll be back in the Prem when I return!

John!

 

Manchester United v Blackpool

Posted on May 22, 2011
Filed Under Blackpool FC | 2 Comments

Ok, I’m not really sure how we got to this point. Playing the league champions away on the last day of the season with a chance to stay in the premier league.

It’s also my last match for 12 months as I’m going traveling around the world.

You could not make thus stuff up!!

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Spurs 1 – 1 Pool

Posted on May 7, 2011
Filed Under Blackpool FC, Ian Holloway | 2 Comments

What a day, what a game, shame we came away with only a point!

Another great day in the capital chatting with a range of fans from the Mansfield and Darlo fans there for the LDV final to the Spurs fans on the way back to Euston. Even strangers in London asking how we got on!

Ollie in the end got the right team out, Kornilenko just doesn’t seem fast enough for this level of football. It was a classic away performance with is soaking up pressure and looking to score in the break.

Credit to Charlie for sticking the second pen away, but again he wasn’t plaguing to his best.

Hopefully this results gives us a little more confidence going into next week! Up the Pool !!!

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Spurs v Pool

Posted on May 7, 2011
Filed Under Blackpool FC | 1 Comment

Our trips to the capital over the years haven’t produced much. This season we’ve only picked up one point in London at West Ham from a possible 12.

This isn’t a must win game but more of a “match wigan results game”. With Spurs having one eye on playing mid week we might have a chance today.

I hope we start with the same 11 bar Phillips out and Puncheon in.

As ever whatever happens it’s going to be a good day out!! No hangover this morning which makes the train a little easier!

Up the pool!!

Blackburn v Pool

Posted on March 19, 2011
Filed Under Blackpool FC | 2 Comments

The day has started well, not much of a hangover from last night and I found a tenner in an old jacket! Let’s hope that luck continues with a win today.

I missed the home match last year when Rovers grabbed a last minute winner. Since then big Sam has been booted and Steve Keen has tried to get rovers playing football.

It will be interesting to see how rovers play today, try to bully us or go head to head and out football us.

With Charlie back Grandin and Fletcher too we are almost back to full strength. Next week Gilks should be back which is just in time for the important run of games.

Let’s just hope for another famous away win today, the 11:00 am to Blackburn awaits…

Blackpool 1 – 3 Chelsea

Posted on March 9, 2011
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A better result than our encounter earlier in the season with the Champions but another disappointing defeat. In my last post I pointed out the failure of changing our formation to suit Chelsea and we did it again going for a Christmas three formation. We really missed having an attacking front three which would have put pressure on Chelsea. Instead they were able to start attacks from the middle of the park and John Terry spend a good amount of time pushed right up into our midfield.

It’s hard to tell if Ollie was forced into the change with a lack of personal?

The good news from the night is we now have Crainey back, Grandin and GTF on the bench. With Charlie back for the next match we are going into a important period of games with key players back into contention. Gilks is back in training too, his return can’t come sooner.

Here’s looking forward to Blackburn for the Lancashire derby!

Pool V Chelsea

Posted on March 7, 2011
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It’s been a while since the last blog post with work commitments over the past month. It’s not been the greatest run of results with only 7 points from a possible 33 since the turn of year.

With good results for Wolves, West Ham and West Brom at the weekend the gap is shortening all the time. And tonight, we face Chelsea.

For anyone at the away game this season there was a bit of gulf between the two sides in the first half half with home side notching up four goals. However that day we set about with a strange 4-1-2-1-2 formation with Alex Baptiste playing as holding midfielder.

Second half we changed to our normal formation and Charlie ran the show, we didn’t concede and had a few great chances to score.

However tonight we’ll be missing, Grandin, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, DJ, Charlie Adam and Stephen Crainey. Without Crainey at left back we look very lop sided and Luke Varney lack support which allows him to go forward. Until Crainey gets back in the side I can’t see us getting the most out of Varney.

However it’s not all doom and gloom, Chelsea have only managed 2 away wins in their last 9 away matches. With torres not looking anywhere near full fitness or form we could get something out of tonights match.

We still have the outstanding record of scoring in 37 concesutive home matches, the last match we didn’t score was against Derby, I missed that match so I have to go back to Saturday 4th April 2009 when we failed to score against Plymouth, a total of 40 games!

Get Volunteering for Free Blackpool FC Tickets

Posted on January 17, 2011
Filed Under Blackpool FC | 1 Comment

Tickets have been hard to come by this season if your not a season ticket holder at Bloomfield Road. However there’s a chance for you to get your hands on some tickets and help the local community at the same time.

Vinspired.com are giving away tickets to Premier League football matches for volunteers. There’s a whole range of places to volunteer across the Fylde coast including sporting activities.

The scheme is aimed for young people aged between 16-25. All you need to do is visit: vinspired.com/football, register, select your team (Blackpool!) and your then your in the draw for tickets.

Even if your not lucky enough to win the tickets the experience is great for boosting your CV as well as helping to pick up new skills, meet new people and maybe some job opportunities.

The scheme is being supported by my ex pro’s including Chris Kamara “I’m proud to say I’ve already made the team – I’ve recently volunteered to climb Kilimanjaro for charity and I’m really excited to get involved and do my bit to raise awareness for a worthwhile cause. Whatever your interests, you can go to vinspired.com to find out about a huge range of volunteering opportunities and see how you can make a difference too.”

So for an unbelievable opportunity head over to vinspired.com/football and get signed up!

West Brom 3 – 2 Blackpool

Posted on January 16, 2011
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Same result as last season’s match at the Hawthorns and another entertaining watch. Either team could have taken all three points yesterday and a fair result would have been 3-3 or 2-2. Another great away day and great support from the travelling tangerine army.

It was good to see the same 11 starting again keeping our shape with Grandin in midfield but two of the goals were conceding from the left had side, we sometimes can be a little unbalanced. Too many times in the first half both of our full backs were exposed. West Broms 1st goal came from a deep cross on the left hand side and their second from Crainey losing the ball from a throw-in. Crainey have been excellent this season but the lack of support ahead of him does leave him exposed.

We should have been two or three goals clear before Albion grabbed an equaliser, DJ and Varney both unable to get thier strikes on goal. Vaughan took his goal brilliantly, hopefully that will spark him into scoring a few more goals in the coming fixtures.

After going 2-1 down it always looked like we would get a goal back. West Brom’s back four were stretched from side to side once Philips came on, his cross was perfect for Fletch who now seems to be into a good run of form.

The winner was just one of those goals you concede, 99 times out of 100 Cathcart will get his head on the ball. Missing it left  Kingston in no mans land and no chance of saving the shot.

We have a weeks break now until Sunderland who will be on a high after a last minute equaliser in the derby match, hopefully we’ll have some new faces into the club in the next week, we are in the transfer window if you hadn’t noticed.

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