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How to beat Birmingham City

Posted on October 22, 2010
Filed Under Blackpool FC | Leave a Comment

If you followed the top flight last year you’ll know that Birmingham City only lost twice last season in the league at home, once to Villa and once to Bolton, 2-1 back in Septemeber 26th 2009 (video). The defeat to Everton at the start of October was the Blue’s first failure  at home in over a year.

Back in September 2008 we picked up an away win at Birmingham in the Championship with a 1-0 win thanks to a goal from Gary Taylor-Fletcher.  So how are we going to pick up three points on Saturday to a team with a pretty good home record?

Using the chalk boards at the Guardian website you can visualise past games, looking at goals, passes, tackles, interceptions etc.

Everton did well to beat Brum a couple of weeks ago, looking at the stats Everton managed to put together a decent amount of passes compared to the home side.

Everton
329 passes - 265 successful - 63 unsuccessful
Birmingham
293 passes - 231 successful - 62 unsuccessful

Compare to our away games

Liverpool
324 passes - 268 successful - 55 unsuccessful
Chelsea
349 passes - 296 successful - 53 unsuccessful
Newcastle
255 passes - 192 successful - 63 unsuccessful
Arsenal
466 passes - 389 successful - 57 unsuccessful
Wigan
277 passes - 220 successful - 54 unsuccessful

Everton had plenty of chance to score, the two shots they did have on target ended with two goals.

Everton Shots V Birmingham

So two attempts on target, two goals. Both Everton goals came from crosses from the left wing, the 1st turned into his own goal by Johnson and the 2nd a low cross turned in by Cahill.

Interesting both low crosses, with the big back two at Birmingham of Dann and Johnson they will win the majority of high balls in the box. Lets check the stats on that.  Over the past four home games Birmingham tend to win the majority of crosses into the box.

Everton – 8 successful crosses,  14 unsuccessful crosses.
Wigan – 1 successful crosses, 14 unsuccessful crosses.
Liverpool – 4 successful crosses, 17 unsuccessful crosses.
Blackburn – 2 successful crosses, 12 unsuccessful crosses.

So we need to keep the ball (obvious), look at opportunities to score on the break, direct from free kicks,  edge of the area shots, 1 on 1 with the keeper as it doesn’t look like we will win much in the air. Going down the wing then crossing in it’s going to result in much.

So far this season Varney and Taylor-Fletchers starting positions have been very much on the flanks, but not with the view to get to the byline and cross, but to cut in looking for one-two”s on the edge of the area or win the odd penalty.

It will be interesting to see if Marlon Harewood is brought into the starting line up to give us a little more power in the air or continue to try and pass our way to goal.

Check out Up the Pool Blog for more chalk boards on the Pool

Pool 2 – 3 Manchester City

Posted on October 17, 2010
Filed Under Blackpool FC, Charlie Adam, Craig Cathcart, DJ Campbell, Elliot Grandin, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Ian Evatt, Luke Varney, Marlon Harewood, Matt Gilks | 4 Comments

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!

Pool V Manchester City – Money Comparison

Posted on October 16, 2010
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Coming up on Sunday we play one of the biggest clubs in the world in terms of wealth. For those who don’t know the actual figures here’s some facts that I’ve worked out which shows the massive gap between the two squads.

City’s total squad cost in signing fees around £342,305,000. (See the spreadsheet link below).

In comparision Pool’s squad cost £3,295,000

So around 100 times cheaper, or more expensive depending on the way you look at it.

Most expensive player at City is Carlos Tevez at at estimated £40,000,000. At Blackpool it’s DJ Campbell, again an estimate of £1,500,000. Which means you could buy 26.5 DJ’s for one Carlos Tevez.

Manchester City have 12 players that cost over £15 million. None of the players at Blackpool cost over £15 million, only two players cost more that £1 million at Blackpool.

Yaya Toure gets paid around £221,000 a week. It would take him 15 weeks of wages to buy the entire Blackpool team.

See the spreadsheet for the workings out.

Liverpool 1 – 2 Blackpool FT

Posted on October 3, 2010
Filed Under Blackpool FC, Charlie Adam, Craig Cathcart, DJ Campbell, Elliot Grandin, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Luke Varney, Matt Gilks | 6 Comments

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.

edit : Seasiders podcast about the Liverpool game is live.

Liverpool V Blackpool

Posted on October 3, 2010
Filed Under Blackpool FC, Gary Taylor-Fletcher | 4 Comments

After a weeks holiday in Mexico it’s back to action with a trip to one of the big boys, Liverpool. There’s no doubting the history of the club but currently the team, well the whole club is suffering a downturn in fortunes so it doesn’t seem as big of a match compared to a couple of seasons ago.

Currently third from bottom, winning one and losing two at home this game for some Liverpool fans is seen as a must win for Hodgson’s team. Hodgson has still yet to convince the Liverpool fans with many calling for his head already.

Once again I’ll be just looking forward to a great day out but I do think we’ll grab a goal. For some crazy reason I think a 3-1 win with Gary Taylor-Fletcher grabbing a hattrick.

Much more likely we’ll lose 1-0 with a Gerrard pen given by of crap “homer” referee.

Chelsea 4 – 0 Blackpool FT

Posted on September 19, 2010
Filed Under Blackpool FC | 4 Comments

Wow we managed to keep a clean sheet in the second half and almost scored a goal.

Hardwood almost grabbed one just hitting the side netting. GTF almost chipped Cech from the edge of the area. We just couldn’t grab that goal!

Its hard to explain the reason why Baps played as a holding midfielder, in the second half with our normal formation we looked much more comfortable.

Anyway again a great day out, it was ons less than Arsenal and we now move on with eyes on a some points at home in the derby game.

For me I’ll be in Mexico for a week! I’ll be listening out for the result on the beach with a nice cold beer!

Chelsea 4 – 0 Blackpool HT

Posted on September 19, 2010
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Not going too well at the moment, 4-0 down and it’s only half time.

Not sure playing baps is going to work in midfield. That is all.

Chelsea V Blackpool

Posted on September 18, 2010
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Tomorrow we face the toughest game of the season away to the Champions, Chelsea. Currently top of the league winning all 4 games, scoring 17 goals and only conceding one goal away. They have won every game at home in the league since 12-12-2009 (3-3 with Everton). Their last defeat in the league was almost two years ago to Arsenal in a 2-1 defeat on 30-11-2008.

A bit of a mountain to climb.

It’s expected that we’ll get turned over in a similar fashion to our last visit to the capital when Arsenal stuck 6 past us. If we can keep 11 men on the park, and keep the score below 3 it will be decent showing. Either way I’m sure we’ll have a good time, but just imagine if we managed to sneak a point…..

Newcastle United 0 – 2 Blackpool

Posted on September 12, 2010
Filed Under Blackpool FC, Charlie Adam, DJ Campbell, Luke Varney | 1 Comment

Whats a result, what a performance, what a day, what a game, what a season this is turning out to be. There’s no doubt today we weathered the storm and thanks to a man of the match performance from Matthew Gilks managed to keep ourselves in the match. But in truth for all the possession and chances Newcastle had they didn’t look like grabbing a goal.

We should have been 1 up earlier on when DJ missed a one-on-one, something that happend last year when we went to lose 4-1. The goal was deserved from a great move from the loanee Varney drawing the foul from Smith.

After 20 mins in the second half it was clear to see that with Newcastle coming forward we would have chances on the break. We took our time but DJ took his chance with a awesome finish!

It was great to see both goals celebrated with a reference to Gary Parkinson who’s currently in hospital after a stroke, hopefully this result will do something to aid is recovery!

So seven points in the bag, 4th in the league, and another huge step today to survival!

Newcastle 0 – 1 Blackpool HT

Posted on September 11, 2010
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Half time and one nil up after a few shaky moments and we scored from the spot. That never looked likely after Lee Mason ran the Lee Mason show featuring dodgy decisions and inconsistency.

Carroll won pretty much everything in the air and came closest hitting the post. Bit we should have bee ahead with Harper saving from Campbell on a 1-on-1.

Varney won the pen being tripped from a surging run. It was good to see Charlie celebrate holding a Gary Parkinson shirt who’s currently hospital after a stroke.

So just need to hold on for 45 mins!

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