Sponsored by
Blackpool 0 Watford 2 - full match report
YOU can always tell how a team has played by the looks on the faces of the supporters as they leave the ground.
After this latest defeat expressions ranged from unhappy to suicidal.
There is a clever, if slightly macabre advert, at a Tube station in London. In big print, opposite the tracks, it says: 'Come a little closer'.
Nearing the platform edge you see, in very small print, that it's an advert for a funeral director.
Pool fans may have almost felt the need for one as they trooped out of Bloomfield Road muttering about another ropey home performance and a defeat that has made many think, for the first real time, there is a serious danger of slipping into the bottom three.
By now you're probably realising that this isn't going to be a happy, 'all things are great' kind of report. If you want that you'd better start following Manchester United.
At the moment at Blackpool it's far from happy – but, hey, did anyone really expect anything different?
Don't forget that this is still vastly preferable to the situation at the club a few years back when a distinctly average team was stuck in the lower reaches of League One. Back then Saturday afternoons were as exciting as a slap across the face with a red hot poker.
A few years ago the only thing all of us craved – apart from perhaps the removal of George Bush from the White House; thankfully we can chalk that one off – was Championship football.
Now we've got it and yet there are still things to complain about.
That's just football and the nature of the beast. Even United fans have issues with their club – the fact that they have only three tiers on their stand, perhaps, or that the prawn sandwiches are slightly on the pricey side, that kind of thing.
>> Canavan's blog: Time for Karl to act
So some grumbles from supporters, however well intentioned, have to be taken with a pinch of salt.
However, many fans have got a point with one issue – the management situation needs resolving.
The chairman should either back Parkes and Thompson or don't, but at least do one or the other.
At the moment the two blokes in charge are doing the best they can under very difficult circumstances and they're making a decent fist of it. But the longer they are considered a stopgap rather than the real thing, the more difficult it will be to command the full respect of the players.
Mind you, on Saturday it wouldn't have mattered if Gus Hiddink, Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson were in the Seasiders dugout – that illustrious trio would have been unable to guide the 11 Pool players on the pitch to a victory. I say that because the lads in Tangerine just didn't get going.
It was the performance of a team badly struggling for form and suffering from a crisis of confidence.
This is Blackpool we're talking about so they're likely to go to Bristol City next week, win 5-0 and make myself and everyone else eat their words.
I hope they do. But the evidence here suggests it's unlikely.
Two wins in the last 10 isn't a great statistic. Mind you it's not quite as depressing as three consecutive home defeats. First QPR, then Doncaster, now this – 270 minutes of pretty grim football.
Parkes and Thompson, rather surprisingly, stuck by the same 16 for a third successive match – a surprise given that Pool were beaten 4-1 at Derby last time out.
That was a closer match than the scoreline suggested and it's accurate to report that the Seasiders played a lot better at Pride Park than they did at Bloomfield Road on Saturday.
Things were poor right from the off. Yes, there were a few attempts at goal – Roy O'Donovan shooting off target on three separate occasions (good on him, at least the lad's having a go), Gary Taylor-Fletcher forcing Scott Loach into an acrobatic stop and DJ Campbell winning the ball on the halfway line and warming Loach's fingers with a crisp drive from the edge of the area.
That last effort was on 23 minutes and from then until Watford opened the scoring on 64 minutes I didn't make a single note. There was nothing to write about. Both sides were the very definition of distinctly average and it was a dour and tedious battle.
The first goal was crucial and unfortunately it came the way of the visitors.
Fair play though, they deserved it. They were awful in the first half but much improved after the break – an example of this is the fact that they won one corner in the first half, but notched up five in the opening 12 minutes of the second.
From the second of those, centre back Mike Williamson made a near post run and sent Jobi McAnuff's flag kick thudding into the bottom corner.
The crowd, understandably, got restless. Parkes had to make a change and he did, bringing on Brett Ormerod (slight surprise to me that he didn't start) and then Graeme Owens.
Both did well, particularly the latter who showed skill and a directness on the left that the team had previously been crying out for.
Three or four times he beat his marker and whipped in powerful crosses that required excellent defensive clearances.
Taylor-Fletcher twice came close-ish to saving the day from close range but it never really looked like happening.
And that suspicion became a reality four minutes from the end when Stephen Crainey and Shaun Barker were caught out by a lovely exchange of passes between McAnuff and Tamas Priskin. The latter – too hot to handle for Pool's back four all afternoon – went on to score quite beautifully, showing poise, pace and skill before lifting the ball above and beyond Matt Gilks. Quality finish.
The home contingent began to depart in droves.
Not so much a bad day in the office as verging on a written warning from the boss about future conduct.
It can only get better. Now it has to.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Blackpool
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 4 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 31 mph
Wind direction: West
