Thr sky cameras haven’t been good for us this year. Tonight infront of the cameras we take on an in form Wolves with 3 wins from 4.
Some team changes tonight with Bashsham at right back with Cathcart out. Crainey also comes in for Bob Harris.
The pitch is looking poor already and the match hasn’t even started !
After a long break with international duty made to seem all that bit longer due to the loss to Charlton we return to action in the first Lancashire derby of the season to play our six fingered friends down a the Turf.
The last few weeks has seen 3 of the 4 Lancashire teams in the championship departed with their managers. In Burnley’s case Eddie Howe was home sick and moved back down a division to Bournemouth where he had come from. Taking over from Howe on a caretaker contract is Terry Pashley, unknown to me and to many younger Pool fans Pashley played over 200 games for the Seasiders back in the 70′s and 80′s.
Although a quiet period for Pool a handful of our players have been in action for their counties. Matt Phillips played 10 minutes as a sub against Belgium for Scotland, however Gilks didn’t see any action.
For England under 21′s Ince played twice and Nathan Delfouneso played once in the match against Serbia that ended a brawl. Both managed to come through the matches with no injuries and it was good to see Ince get two games under his belt after a recent period of injury.
The best news from the break has to be Craig Cathcart playing a full match again Portugal for Northern Ireland, the Irish came out with a draw and it was the first action Cathcart had seen for a month since starting against Middlesborough.
So for the team?
Not a clue, Ince should start providing he’s not too tired after a couple of games in quick succession. We could also see Cathcart replace Evatt. There was a midweek friendly against Fleetwood where Gerardo Bruna bagged a hattrick so he maybe rewarded with a place on the bench.
The team will be different lets hope for a different result from last years 3-1 drubbing at the turf. However with Charlie Austin bagging 15 goals in 12 games so far it’s going to be hard to keep a clean sheet so expect goals and possible a similar scoreline, lets hope its the other way round this time.
To have an overriding feeling of disappointment after a 3-2 defeat to Manchester City shows us how far we’ve come and the quality of today’s performance. There’s also an overriding feeling of pride for the team and the club again for matching up to a team that cost over 100 times more and get paid many thousands more. It shows that money isn’t everything.
In the end as one City fan on the train home put it “Silva was the diference…”, which promoted the reply from myself, “yes and the other £300 million pounds worth of players”. That bit of class and ability to get efforts on target proved the difference.
The starting 11 was the same as the Liverpool match with Cathcart and Gilks recovering from knocks. We started really well in the first half but City had the real 1st chance when Gilks tipped a Johnson shot over the top. After that it was a case of us trying and then failing to hit the target with Varney, Adam and Campbell all having great chances test out Hart, who had a great reception on his return.
We carried on in the second period as we had started and could…should…maybe had a goal from Gary Taylor-Fletcher but for a flag happy lino. Watching a couple of times more, it looked like the lino was keeping his flag down until Grandin reached for the ball. That should have been irrelevant as DJ Campbell should had hit the back of the net 1 on 1 with Joe Hart.
Tevez who had been quiet all first half then popped up to flick the opening goal, I’m sure standing a yard off side helped him to get infront of Cathcart. Marlon grabbed the equaliser from a cracking ball in from Charlie Adam, a deserved goal.
Glad All Over had just finished and then Tevez grabbed his second, once again Ian Evatt being fouled / knocked off the ball to loose possession. Thats happened a few too many times now, Fulham’s first goal was the same when he was bundled over in the run up to the goal.
Silva grabbed a great third jinking past two of our defenders and slotted into the far corner giving Gilks no chance, no complaints. Our second made the score reflective of the performance and good to see another goal for Fletch, and assit for Varney.
The initial disappointment tonight should turn to pride over the coming days, we once again impressed and surly won over the neutrals watching on Sky. Hopefully we’ll get some more points on the board next week at Birmingham so we don’t have to look over our shoulders for another week!
Wow, we managed to hang on in the second half and take all three points in an amazing afternoon of football at Anfield beating Liverpool 2-1. Yes we beat Liverpool 2-1!!!
Back to a strong line up with Campbell, Varney and GTF upfront, we were set out from the start to attack. The first half we had loads of possession and deserved the two goal lead.
Once again Varney cutting in from the flank won the pen, similar to the Newcastle game, same outcome from the spot from Charlie.
The second was a great breakaway goal with Varney hitting the back of the net. Let’s hope we have a pre agreed fee for him!
Second half Liverpool were always going to come at us, it was a puzzling decision for the foul and disappointing we let them take the kick quickly from which the grabbed one back.
After that the home side huffed and puffed but didn’t really test Gilks too much, bar one effort in injury time. Cole and Ngog ahold have scored with efforts they both put wide.
We even nearly managed to grab a third on the break. Phillips did well at rightback, as did Keinen. However withs Baps injured and now injuries to Cathcart and Eardley it’s not looking good for our next match.
Once again Mike Jones was appalling as the man in Black. Gerrard, Meireles should have been booked with Kyrgiakos seeing red for a second booking.
Overall a really great day out, great performance and another big step towered survival.
few…….. 4 players in today as expected Craig Cathcart from Manchester United, Ludovic Sylvestre from Mlada Bolesla, Elliot Grandin from CSKA Sofia and Malaury Martin on a free from AS Monaco.
Malaury Martin
Elliot Grandin
Ludovic Sylvestre
Craig Cathcart
So four at the moment with it looks like another two tomorrow!