Blackpool in the Premier League 10 years on: Seasiders fall just short against Manchester City

The New Year weekend a decade ago had seen Pool head to Manchester City on the back of victory over Sunderland, only to lose by a single goal as STEVE CANAVAN reported in The Gazette...

It says everything you need to know about modern-day football that Manchester City’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak was recently made – deep breath here – Commander of the Star of the Order of the Italian Solidarity for his contributions to economic relationships between Italy and the United Arab Emirates.

Come again? In years gone by, football chairmen wore flat caps, ran a local factory and lived in a semi-detached bungalow on the slighter smarter side of town – and they were the flash ones.

Al Mubarak was appointed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, City’s owner, who has more hundred dollar bills in his back pocket than Peter Stringfellow has chest hairs.

Sheikh Mansour took over the club 18 months ago and has so far shelled out somewhere in the region of £300m attempting to win – or buy, depending on your viewpoint – the Premier League title.

On the evidence of yesterday, City have some way to go. They might have won, but to me they seemed too much like a bunch of individual superstars rather than a team.

Don’t get me wrong, they were the better side and had Carlos Tevez not had a nightmare in front of goal (his finest moment coming after he rounded Richard Kingson and was about to slide the ball into an empty net when he fell over without warning, Devon Loch-style), the margin of victory would have been greater.

But they weren’t take your breath away brilliant and quite how they are almost top of the division is a bit of a mystery.

It perhaps says something about this season’s Premier League: there are no real standout teams, everyone’s beating each other, and it’s as open as it has been for years.

In the two games between City and Ian Holloway’s Seasiders, there hasn’t been a great deal to choose between them.

City, of course, have more quality. Given that they are paying some of their players more than £200,000 a week you’d expect that.

At Bloomfield Road, Pool were only denied a draw, possibly a victory, by some horrible refereeing, and at Eastlands on Saturday, they came mighty close to grabbing a point after playing their opponents off the park in the final 15 minutes.

After having the better of the majority of the contest, Roberto Mancini’s team suddenly got terribly nervous towards the end and began playing for time and slashing at clearances.

In the end, they just about made it over the finish line but Blackpool gave them a scare, of that there is no doubt.

Holloway can again be mighty proud of his team, who look as if they are starting 2011 in the same determined mood which yielded so much success in the previous 12 months.

The 3,000 visiting fans certainly appreciated their team’s efforts and gave them a suitably rousing ovation at the full-time whistle. It’s a good job they did, for the home fans seemed strangely reluctant to do much shouting.

While the City of Manchester Stadium is a terrific venue, it certainly hasn’t got the charm or atmosphere of the old Maine Road.

Perhaps the City fans are still wary of getting their hopes up, as the club strives to end a 34-year wait for a major trophy.

In Tevez they have a striker who is, if he decides to stick around, capable of propelling them to success. He is as good as anything on the domestic or indeed world stage.

Here, the Argentine looked dangerous every time he got on the ball, though thankfully for Pool his shooting was as straight as a New Year’s Eve reveller strolling home from the pub.

A misplaced pass from Charlie Adam gave Tevez a chance to score as early as the 25th second. He failed to take the opportunity, firing wide from a tight angle.

Then the Seasiders had two good chances, both falling to Gary Taylor-Fletcher. First he almost got in on goal, then saw a curling shot heading for the top corner brilliantly tipped away by Joe Hart.

It wasn’t the only time during the afternoon that the keeper, whose loan spell helped Pool win promotion from League One four years ago, proved why he’s now England’s number one.

David Silvaalmost twice hit the target before Kingson brilliantly pushed away a blistering effort from Tevez.

Then the goal which won it, and as Holloway rightly pointed out afterwards, a terrible one to concede.

No-one picked up Adam Johnson lurking on the edge of the box as City took a corner.

A headed clearance duly fell to him, he hit it from 20 yards and the ball deflected off Stephen Crainey’s heel and past Kingson.

A fortunate goal, but not as fortunate as Pool were 60 seconds later after Luke Varney had clumsily fallen into Yaya Toure in the box and conceded a penalty.

Only an idiot would have betted against Tevez, the Premier League’s top scorer in 2010 with 26 goals, failing with his spot-kick but he dragged a poor effort wide of the post.

Pool recovered their poise and, just before the break, might have equalised had Taylor-Fletcher realised the space he was in, right in front of goal, after being cleverly picked out by Ludovic Sylvestre.

Instead of turning and firing in from point-blank range, he flicked it sideways instead.

The man who created that chance, Sylvestre, was taken off at half-time. A little strange as he had been possibly the best player on the pitch.

At least it got Matty Phillips on and the prodigiously talented 19-year-old, who must surely become a regular starter, soon ripped into City with a vengeance.

So impressive was he on the right flank that within 13 minutes of the second half starting, Mancini substituted Aleksandar Kolarov and brought on Pablo Zabaleta.

However, it wasn’t until James Milner came on as well to help Zabaleta that City finally got Phillips under some semblance of control.

Tevez comically missed that golden chance when clean through, then sidefooted over from 10 yards as City looked to add to their tally.

As time wore on, the never-say-die attitude of Holloway’s Tangerines became more apparent and it was Pool who finished much the stronger.

But for another flying stop from Hart, arching backwards to palm Neal Eardley’s rasping drive over the bar, they may have nicked an equaliser.

As it was, it was a first defeat since the 3-2 defeat at Aston Villa on November 10 but this wasn’t the kind of defeat that saps confidence and leaves one feeling depressed. Far from it.

Instead it was simply further evidence that Blackpool are not just coping, but thriving at this level, and that Premier League survival remains very much within their grasp.

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