Tight at the bottom for Blackpool

Tight at the bottom


Chris Brown
Tangerine

No doubt about it, the wheels are starting to come off Blackpool’s season. Not only do we keep losing, but all the bottom clubs have been steadily picking up points as the race to stay in this wonderful league hots up.
Only six points separate the bottom eight, and every club will fight desperately for survival. In 1970 Blackpool went up to Division One (today’s Premiership) and came straight back down again. The pressure is building up for all those whose veins run tangerine; nerves are seriously jangling at the desperate thought of history repeating itself.
Being in the Premiership is very different for Blackpool fans. The last 40 years have been spent making calculations such as ‘If we win our game in hand and such and such loses, we’ll be only four points off a play-off place’ as we optimistically looked upwards to the promotion places. Now the entire season is spent looking at the table from the bottom up in the quest to keep three teams beneath us.
As the football world were watching Arsenal go out of the Champions League, our only interest was from the far more important game at Goodison Park and the grim news that  Birmingham City had come away from Everton with a point.
We have been involved in some hugely entertaining games this season as our nutty but likeable manager Ian Holloway pursues an attack attack policy. We’ve been involved in four 3-2 games and a 5-3, but have lost every one; not a single point from five fixtures in which we scored 11 goals!
There is no escaping the fact that opponents at this level a) will have a top goalie, not prone to mistakes; b) have a subs’ bench full of talent, players who really can turn games. Silva, Giggs et al; c) know how to shut up shop defensively.
The game I went to watch against West Ham was a perfect example of this last point. Having played well in the first half and taken a 3-1 lead into the dressing room, the Hammers managed to stifle all manoeuvres in the second half.
To compound our difficulties, all of our three goalkeepers are out with injuries. This forced us to bring on local youngster Mark Halstead, who looks barely old enough to shave, for his league debut halfway through the game against Chelsea. Then again, he may turn out to be the next Gordon Banks.
Next game up is Lancashire rivals Blackburn Rovers away. They have 32 points from 29 games, the same as us, so the stakes could hardly be higher for both sides. Rovers have been bought out by two ugly-looking Asian chicken dealers, so the neutral fan may be on the side of the Seasiders, if only from a perspective of saying no to animal cruelty.
Our playmaker Charlie Adam returns from suspension for this fixture with lots to prove. It was his howler of an own goal that gave Rovers all three points at Bloomfield Road back in September. Charlie Adam is a tasty player, no question, but his decision making isn’t always the ‘Mae West’. He is prone to try a 60-yard banana shot instead of dropping a ball into the path of a striker’s run, but if he sorts that side of his game out, I think the Scot will go on to become a great player. We really will need him to be on form in our nine remaining fixtures – which include Arsenal, Spurs and the last game of the season at Old Trafford.
Just enough space to mention our brilliant 3-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur. Whereas brining on ‘Crouchy’ was good enough to win it for Spurs at the San Siro, we were having none of it at Bloomfield Rd. Come On Pool.