Obama or no Obama, Blackpool FC are still as infuriating as ever.
Seven days after the club's supporters were in raptures following a thrilling, dramatic victory over Watford – a game that will still be talked about in pubs throughout the town 20 years from now – came this.

It was the polar opposite of what happened at Vicarage Road – drab, listless and dull.

Watford had been the equivalent of 90 minutes in the company of Spike Milligan. Ipswich was like an hour and half with John Major.

Simon Grayson's side had only two real chances: Rob Edwards put a free header over the bar in the opening seconds (a moment which set the tone for the afternoon) and Gary Taylor-Fletcher hit the woodwork late on.
That aside, Pool were strangely off the pace and lethargic.

As a result it was one of those games when it was hard not to leave the stadium muttering, cursing and wondering why you hadn't stayed home to help decorate the spare bedroom.

However, credit where it's due. Ipswich are clearly a good team and on Saturday they showed it. They were the better side throughout, passed the ball well and deserved victory.

But just in case anyone starts criticising this Pool performance too loudly, please don't forget how far the club has come in recent times.

In the last two years they have massively over-achieved and are punching above their weight.

Ipswich, don't forget, are a big, big club. They've won the League title, the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup.

The lad who scored the winning goal here, David Norris, cost £2m. That's more than Blackpool have spent in the transfer market in the last decade.

Defeat here might have been disappointing (and God knows it was – primarily because Pool once again blew the chance to get all important back-to-back wins) but it doesn't change the fact that the team has had a wonderful start to the season and offered this position after 16 games, Simon Grayson would definitely have taken it.

And perhaps, in a strange way, it's no bad thing that the players will now get a kick up the backside from their manager.

After all there is a rather big game coming up on Sunday and given a choice between beating Ipswich or Preston, I'd bet my entire Gazette monthly wage (£675 before tax) that 99.9 per cent of supporters would opt for the latter.

It is slightly worrying, though, that Blackpool seem to be a better away team this season.

Because they've lost Wes Hoolahan and so have less creativity, they are more solid but less adventurous. Thus they are more suited to soaking up pressure and hitting opponents on the break.

That, of course, works a treat away – but not at Bloomfield Road.
At home it is Blackpool who have to make the running and they don't appear as comfortable with that.

Mind you, on Saturday they neither made the running nor sat back. Instead there was a strange nothingness about their performance. They just couldn't get going.

Only Keith Southern and Ian Evatt looked themselves.

Southern won three absolute crunching challenges in the opening minutes, the kind that if you or I had to make we'd pull out of without a moment's hesitation.

Not Southern. He flies into tackles like the battering ram police use to knock down a drug dealer's front door in a 5am raid.

Evatt shows similar courage and determination and, especially in the first half, he was a shining beacon at the back.

Conditions were again not great, the wind swirling in from the open south end. Hopefully that won't be the case for much longer, for it was encouraging to note that progress is being made on the new stand: the mud is a bit flatter and the yellow skip has been moved slightly further to the left.

But even taking into account the conditions, Pool's total lack of success in getting their passing game going was a mystery.

The performance was completely disjointed and there was little cohesion, especially in a first period when the Seasiders would time and time again clear their lines but succeed only in giving the ball straight back to the opposition.

I had to check at one point that the visitor's didn't have an extra man on the pitch, such was the extent of their possession.

Second half it was better but not enough of an improvement to grab an equaliser and as a result it's a case of must do much better for next week's eagerly anticipated visit of the enemy from up the road.

Danny Coid will hope he's fit for that one, missing out here with a pulled hamstring which allowed Mo Camara back in.

That was the one change from the Watford win and initially it seemed the team were carrying on from where they left off.

Claus Jorgensen floated a free-kick into the area with 69 seconds on the clock and Edwards lost his marker. But with all the goal to aim at, he planted his header the wrong side of the bar. It was a golden opportunity and the skipper – still searching for his first Blackpool goal – should have at least hit the target.

Despite Southern's best efforts to crunch half the Ipswich side single-handedly, the visitors rapidly took the game by the scruff of the neck and created several half chances.

Had it not been for a combination of poor finishing and Evatt's defending, it would have taken a lot less than 41 minutes for a goal to arrive.

It eventually did after an Alan Quinn corner from the right was met by centre back Gareth McAuley, who headed powerfully toward goal. Claus Jorgensen did well to clear off the line but the ball fell to David Norris and the winger made no mistake – shooting low and hard from 12 yards to score through a crowd of players.

Pool started the second half as they'd begun the first. Free-kick from the right, this time delivered by Adam Hammill – on at the break for David Vaughan – and a free header for Edwards. The defender converted this one but, alas, the linesmen raised his flag for offside.

Nonetheless it signalled an improvement, though try as they might the Seasiders couldn't find a way back.

Grayson used all three subs – as well as Hammill, he brought on fit-again Steve Kabba and David Fox.

Shaun Barker tested keeper Richard Wright with a header from a corner, Alan Gow blazed a 20 yarder high and wide and Southern nodded over from Hammill's cross.

But the closest Pool got was when Fox cleverly found Taylor-Fletcher with a chip into the area. The winger's header looped over Richard Wright but hit the bar.

Moments before Jon Stead had come off the Ipswich bench and with his very first touch struck the woodwork from 20 yards. Prior to that Kevin Lisbie had been unlucky not to score with a sharp shot on the turn which missed by a whisker.

Even during three minutes of stoppage time, Grayson's men couldn't really raise their game and Ipswich were able to extend their impressive run to one defeat in 10 outings.

For Pool it was simply a bad day at the office and an afternoon to forget.

We can only hope they don't have a lunchtime to forget next week. That would be too much to bear.