Anything would be better than Tuesday. Anything. Such was the soul sapping experience of that match, I spend part of the morning trying to talk myself into a positive mindset.
It works quite well, in fact it works worryingly well as anyone I meet before the game, I'm keen to tell 'today is the day.' Usually confidence is something I fear but there's something in the air I swear. Close my eyes and I can see us ping ponging the ball about with a crisp and purposeful manner and scoring, 3, 4, maybe 5.
I have no idea why I feel this way other than a contrary desire to buck the prevailing mood and a desperate longing for us to reignite the fire that feels as if it's gone out at home.
I like the team - it's something different and it feels as if Bruce has pondered how he can the most technically able players onto the pitch and managed to do so in a way that looks quite balanced and hopefully potent.
We're here, we're ready - nothing can possibly go wrong!
---
Mansfield have the best of the early play. We look a bit lost in our all new formation and spend too much time passing to people who aren't there and appealing for fouls that aren't going to be given. Mansfield are playing in a way that makes it feel as if they've got an extra player - we're really struggling get through them -but when they win the ball, they also carry an attacking threat and it feels as if they've both packed the defence and got players in advanced positions. I'm just beginning to fear the worst when Robbie Apter picks it up and with seemingly little on, picks up a darting run from Carey with a beautifully weighted ball. Carey takes it perfectly in his stride, takes it on one more step and then finishes with a shockingly clinical strike into the bottom corner. It's a really lovely goal and one that makes the game look so easy.
Definitely nothing can go wrong now. We're ahead, that will throw their game plan into disarray and we will pick them off, one by one, like a tangerine sniper taking potshots from a hidden rooftop position, killing stags for the sheer sport of the thing. Just watch. This is going to be tremendous...
Mansfield are down their left, we're back peddling, the cross is delivered. It's ok though, because we're great at cutting out moments like this. Today though, we're not and our defending resembles some game stunned by a hunters bright lights and as we stagger about trying to work out what the hell is going on, a Mansfield forward appears in between two defenders and heads home unchallenged. Fuck's sake Pool! I jerk my head back in frustration and imagine Steve Bruce's thoughts to be somewhat akin to mine. That's a goal he'll hate to have conceded.
Things get worse. Mansfield look as if they can got through the middle at will. Theoretically playing 3 in the centre should make it harder to break us down than when we play two but it's like we've got a great big hole for them to run into and run into it they do. They look decent, everything they do is done quickly and every ball is fought for. They don't seem to have to fight much for their second though as they exploit the gap in the middle, one of them running hard into space and then unleashing a stunning effort that taunts Tyrer by swerving away from his outstretched glove at the same rate that he flies across the goal, before it smacks definitively into the back of the net. This wasn't in my minds eye as I imagined us running rampant.
There's little to no response from us. Tryer and Baggot get in a terrible tangle. One of them should put their name on it but neither do. They hit the side netting. They dominate completely. We're woeful. We can't get the ball under control to pass it, let alone string two passes together. Ennis is totally isolated, Evans is being bypassed and Carey a link man between nothing. Only Offiah looks to have any measure of his opponent and it's something when your right back looks the most dangerous player on your team.
We offer a little more late on, a tremendous run from Offiah comes to nothing but was reminiscent of Uncle Martin's ability to shrug off a tackle with a shimmy and a burst of pace and Jimmy belts one that's blocked after a bit of a goalmouth scramble. That's more or less it. They've out played us totally and we're frankly fortunate to be within sight of them.
---
I honestly thought this team would work. It hasn't. Conceding the goals isn't the most worrying thing - it's that we look penned in and disjointed and barring the one bit of real quality when we scored, we've offered very little in terms of team play. Contrast this with Mansfield, who look hungrier, fitter, stronger in the challenge, calmer on the ball and determined to play fast and direct, whilst keeping the ball mostly on the floor. I actually wish I was a Mansfield fan because the East stand, packed as it is, buoyant after a great first half showing, looks a great place to be in comparison to the listless home stands.
---
Say what you like about Bruce, if he's not happy, he does something. The players do that funny running over the little plastic marker routine and I note 1,2,3 changes. Deputy Captain Marvel (CJ), Ashley Goals and Hayden hipster Coulson are on as we're ripping up the pregame plan and going two up front, like for like with Mansfield.
We're better for it. Fletcher immediately wins the ball, CJ runs at their defence and they've got something to think about in terms of our pace and physicality. Coulson stretches the play by hugging the touchline and there's more space to operate. It makes more sense now. Evans can float in front of the back line, Morgan buzz in the middle and Sonny drift, going beyond Fletcher when he comes deep or picking up knock downs. This is going to be ok.
I'm certain of that when Mansfield break on us and clip the post. That's it. The game has turned. They've missed the chance to bury us. This is going to be all Pool now.
Fucking hell. It's not is it? Mansfield have just scored another goal. I'm actually beating the back of the seat in front of me (empty, I presume it's usual occupants are at the Sealife Centre sampling the product on offer there) in pointless fury at the utter shitness of our attempt to stop them from scoring. Their number 30 (a dead ringer for Rob Apter) picked it up on their left, cut inside. Nothing doing, so he laid it off to a lad who in turn laid it of to someone coming from deeper on the right. Everyone then ran away and let him advance into the box where he recreated Carey's finish from earlier, equally deadly and equally simple but whereas Carey's movement was sharp and sudden and Apter's ball very well executed, this felt like a team just waltzing across the box and being invited to have a shot...
The Stags look irresistible for about 5 more minutes. They play really well and have us clinging on. In fact, it's looks very much like we've let go when they cut us open on our left, get a ball across the face of goal and their lad manages to miss a chance that would be easier to score.
Finally we get a bit of a grip on ourselves and Mansfield start to tire. They've played really well but the intensity of their performance is beginning to drop. Carey is managing to get into the game and gallops up the pitch, 50 yards carrying the ball only to not really have a pass on at the end. He turns it round the corner nicely a few times and we at least make some positions. None of it quite adds up to a chance, but it's better than conceding or nearly conceding.
Then things get better. There doesn't seem to be a huge amount on as Jordan 'remember him?' Gabriel clips a hopeful ball in. What seems speculative actually turns out to be very well executed. Carey rises and takes a defender with him. I don't think Carey gets a touch, but Ash Fletcher certainly does, scrapping the ball in, seemingly uncontested at the far post. It's a simple goal and it comes slightly as a surprise but it's a fair reward for Fletcher's hard work today as he's run the channels, tackled back, given us a focal point and linked very well. Maybe he's one of those players that just needs dropping from time to time to keep him sharp.
Right... C'mon Pool! The ground is now alive. It's not full on Bloomfield, the kind that takes your voice away on the air and you forget everything, but it's at least not the morgue that it has been. We romp forward. We're tigerish all of a sudden. We're actually winning challenges, we're penning them in at long last, Evans and Morgan patrolling their attempts to break on us, Ennis snapping into tackles...
Then CJ is put away, we can all see the pass and the anticipation rises as it's made, it's a footrace and CJ, maligned as he is in certain situations, is an absolute top tier player in this particular circumstance. He goes, it's classic CJ, push, run, push run, past one, the covering run never makes him, he pokes it further and catches it again, for a horrible moment I think he's run it out of play but he's got this, he's pulling it back and there's Ennis, like a modern day Andy Watson, peeling of his man at the front post and scuffing it home, a shot so skewed and scruffy that he has to take a moment to watch it home before reeling away in a pure moment of strikers delight... YES!!!!!
If earlier the embers started glowing, now the flames are flickering. There's time to win this. There's time to make this into a joyous comeback against the odds season shaping win. We can do this.
C'MON POOL!
Lee Evans has had a strange game today. He's looked dicey, sluggish and given it away, more than once he's looked anonymous in a way he doesn't normally and yet, he's been great in the last 15 minutes and he plays an absolutely pearler of a pass out to Coulson who takes it beautifully, runs hard and unleashes a thunderbolt of an effort from distance that I assume the keeper gets fingertips to because we're awarded a corner. That would have been some way to win it, a goal of stunning quality that sadly wasn't quite realised.
Mansfield know this game needs wrapping up. They spoil for time, they make subs. They fall on the ball when they can. Gone is the zip and purpose and now they get behind the ball. They frustrate us and the seconds tick by. Normal time turns to injury time and even though we have centre back Husband overlapping on the left wing and are throwing Casey forward when we can, we can't find the chance. In fact, right at the end, in trying to build a final attack from the back, Casey hammers it needlessly hard at Gabriel who equally needlessly lets it slip under his foot and gifts Mansfield a throw level with our box. It comes to nothing, but serves as a reminder of how poor we were before the efforts of the last 20 minutes.
---
On the plus side, as a spectacle, it was way better than Tuesday. It wasn't quite 'football, bloody hell' but it at least had some range in its emotional impact. I felt hope, I felt frustration, I felt really quite pissed off, then I cheered up again. On Tuesday I felt mainly as if I'd like to go home and go to bed. The spirit we have is also a positive. Set aside how good the players are (or not) and it can't be denied that they can fight their way back into a game. This wasn't the case last year and in and of itself, it's worth something.
All three subs had good games - I though Fletcher in particular was genuinely excellent and lit up other players. Carey looked brighter Ennis had something to play around and we had someone to aim for. Coming back into a game always feels good and it's fair to say that there was some real purpose to us later in the game.
All of that doesn't disguise that overall, it wasn't a good performance at all. Defensively, we were shocking, which is out of character for us of late. I think personally, that stemmed from two things:
a) we had no control in midfield at all. Mansfield dictated play and made the centre circle and beyond their own. I have a near obsession with the fact we lack an athletic, disruptive physical presence in midfield and this was never more apparent than today. Evans just couldn't keep up with the role of defensive shield and Morgan got brushed off like someone flicking away loose lint off the sleeve of a coat.
b) the change of shape threw us - it was a bold move and Bruce was right in my humble football blogging know it all but not really know anything much if we're honest opinion to try it - we didn't however look ready for it and played passes short, or dithered as if we didn't know where the runners would be. or where and how to move for this system. The lack of wingers also really upset the defensive shape as both full back were exposed horribly and whilst Offiah had the pace to cope, Husband's days of being able to run the whole flank are behind him. Apter and Sivera were betwixt and between, never close enough to Ennis to give him something to play with or off but also not really offering any cover or particularly getting into the game.
So ultimately, the first half performance would say it was the wrong choice - but it was a mistake I think we needed to make, even if only to highlight what we don't have and how the formation can change, but the shortages in the squad can't be covered up easily. You can't play lower league football effectively without at least one combative midfielder in your squad. I will keep saying this until I'm blue in the face. We need an athlete who can tackle. It's obvious. How we haven't acted upon this is beyond me because it's not even a particularly classy player we need. Just someone with an engine to cover, tackle, fight and do the dirty work in particular games where that's needed. Marcus fucking Bean for a new era would be fine. It's writ large and I think today showed what we lack as much as any deficits in what we have. Players will have bad games individually, it will always be so - but when you simply don't have a particular part of the jigsaw then it impacts the whole unit over and over again.
Bruce has to take credit for changing it. He did so decisively and showed some aggression in doing so. Clough had set up Mansfield brilliantly, but Bruce managed us back into the game and as has been noted before, for all our shortcomings, the tactical acumen in game is rarely the issue these days.
All in all, it was entertaining enough but really, I can't help feeling that the big takeaway is - we didn't do enough in January. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if Sadler is setting managers perverse challenges to fulfil bets or something. Last year it seemed Critchley's mission in life was to finish 8th. This year it's as if we're on some kind of multi-million pound draw bonus. Who knows. Such is the surreal world of Blackpool FC.
Middle table scrapping draw kings of global football.
Onward
If you want to get literally nothing more than you'd get for free anyway but are wanting to pointlessly give some money to the cause of a football blog that is usually far, far too long then your best option is Patreon. I wouldn't though because frankly, it's an act of self indulgence to write this shit and it shouldn't be encouraged.
It works quite well, in fact it works worryingly well as anyone I meet before the game, I'm keen to tell 'today is the day.' Usually confidence is something I fear but there's something in the air I swear. Close my eyes and I can see us ping ponging the ball about with a crisp and purposeful manner and scoring, 3, 4, maybe 5.
I have no idea why I feel this way other than a contrary desire to buck the prevailing mood and a desperate longing for us to reignite the fire that feels as if it's gone out at home.
I like the team - it's something different and it feels as if Bruce has pondered how he can the most technically able players onto the pitch and managed to do so in a way that looks quite balanced and hopefully potent.
We're here, we're ready - nothing can possibly go wrong!
 |
| If we can flog 1000000 portions of gravy we can have a new player. |
---
Mansfield have the best of the early play. We look a bit lost in our all new formation and spend too much time passing to people who aren't there and appealing for fouls that aren't going to be given. Mansfield are playing in a way that makes it feel as if they've got an extra player - we're really struggling get through them -but when they win the ball, they also carry an attacking threat and it feels as if they've both packed the defence and got players in advanced positions. I'm just beginning to fear the worst when Robbie Apter picks it up and with seemingly little on, picks up a darting run from Carey with a beautifully weighted ball. Carey takes it perfectly in his stride, takes it on one more step and then finishes with a shockingly clinical strike into the bottom corner. It's a really lovely goal and one that makes the game look so easy.
Definitely nothing can go wrong now. We're ahead, that will throw their game plan into disarray and we will pick them off, one by one, like a tangerine sniper taking potshots from a hidden rooftop position, killing stags for the sheer sport of the thing. Just watch. This is going to be tremendous...
Mansfield are down their left, we're back peddling, the cross is delivered. It's ok though, because we're great at cutting out moments like this. Today though, we're not and our defending resembles some game stunned by a hunters bright lights and as we stagger about trying to work out what the hell is going on, a Mansfield forward appears in between two defenders and heads home unchallenged. Fuck's sake Pool! I jerk my head back in frustration and imagine Steve Bruce's thoughts to be somewhat akin to mine. That's a goal he'll hate to have conceded.
Things get worse. Mansfield look as if they can got through the middle at will. Theoretically playing 3 in the centre should make it harder to break us down than when we play two but it's like we've got a great big hole for them to run into and run into it they do. They look decent, everything they do is done quickly and every ball is fought for. They don't seem to have to fight much for their second though as they exploit the gap in the middle, one of them running hard into space and then unleashing a stunning effort that taunts Tyrer by swerving away from his outstretched glove at the same rate that he flies across the goal, before it smacks definitively into the back of the net. This wasn't in my minds eye as I imagined us running rampant.
There's little to no response from us. Tryer and Baggot get in a terrible tangle. One of them should put their name on it but neither do. They hit the side netting. They dominate completely. We're woeful. We can't get the ball under control to pass it, let alone string two passes together. Ennis is totally isolated, Evans is being bypassed and Carey a link man between nothing. Only Offiah looks to have any measure of his opponent and it's something when your right back looks the most dangerous player on your team.
We offer a little more late on, a tremendous run from Offiah comes to nothing but was reminiscent of Uncle Martin's ability to shrug off a tackle with a shimmy and a burst of pace and Jimmy belts one that's blocked after a bit of a goalmouth scramble. That's more or less it. They've out played us totally and we're frankly fortunate to be within sight of them.
---
I honestly thought this team would work. It hasn't. Conceding the goals isn't the most worrying thing - it's that we look penned in and disjointed and barring the one bit of real quality when we scored, we've offered very little in terms of team play. Contrast this with Mansfield, who look hungrier, fitter, stronger in the challenge, calmer on the ball and determined to play fast and direct, whilst keeping the ball mostly on the floor. I actually wish I was a Mansfield fan because the East stand, packed as it is, buoyant after a great first half showing, looks a great place to be in comparison to the listless home stands.
---
Say what you like about Bruce, if he's not happy, he does something. The players do that funny running over the little plastic marker routine and I note 1,2,3 changes. Deputy Captain Marvel (CJ), Ashley Goals and Hayden hipster Coulson are on as we're ripping up the pregame plan and going two up front, like for like with Mansfield.
We're better for it. Fletcher immediately wins the ball, CJ runs at their defence and they've got something to think about in terms of our pace and physicality. Coulson stretches the play by hugging the touchline and there's more space to operate. It makes more sense now. Evans can float in front of the back line, Morgan buzz in the middle and Sonny drift, going beyond Fletcher when he comes deep or picking up knock downs. This is going to be ok.
I'm certain of that when Mansfield break on us and clip the post. That's it. The game has turned. They've missed the chance to bury us. This is going to be all Pool now.
Fucking hell. It's not is it? Mansfield have just scored another goal. I'm actually beating the back of the seat in front of me (empty, I presume it's usual occupants are at the Sealife Centre sampling the product on offer there) in pointless fury at the utter shitness of our attempt to stop them from scoring. Their number 30 (a dead ringer for Rob Apter) picked it up on their left, cut inside. Nothing doing, so he laid it off to a lad who in turn laid it of to someone coming from deeper on the right. Everyone then ran away and let him advance into the box where he recreated Carey's finish from earlier, equally deadly and equally simple but whereas Carey's movement was sharp and sudden and Apter's ball very well executed, this felt like a team just waltzing across the box and being invited to have a shot...
The Stags look irresistible for about 5 more minutes. They play really well and have us clinging on. In fact, it's looks very much like we've let go when they cut us open on our left, get a ball across the face of goal and their lad manages to miss a chance that would be easier to score.
Finally we get a bit of a grip on ourselves and Mansfield start to tire. They've played really well but the intensity of their performance is beginning to drop. Carey is managing to get into the game and gallops up the pitch, 50 yards carrying the ball only to not really have a pass on at the end. He turns it round the corner nicely a few times and we at least make some positions. None of it quite adds up to a chance, but it's better than conceding or nearly conceding.
Then things get better. There doesn't seem to be a huge amount on as Jordan 'remember him?' Gabriel clips a hopeful ball in. What seems speculative actually turns out to be very well executed. Carey rises and takes a defender with him. I don't think Carey gets a touch, but Ash Fletcher certainly does, scrapping the ball in, seemingly uncontested at the far post. It's a simple goal and it comes slightly as a surprise but it's a fair reward for Fletcher's hard work today as he's run the channels, tackled back, given us a focal point and linked very well. Maybe he's one of those players that just needs dropping from time to time to keep him sharp.
Right... C'mon Pool! The ground is now alive. It's not full on Bloomfield, the kind that takes your voice away on the air and you forget everything, but it's at least not the morgue that it has been. We romp forward. We're tigerish all of a sudden. We're actually winning challenges, we're penning them in at long last, Evans and Morgan patrolling their attempts to break on us, Ennis snapping into tackles...
Then CJ is put away, we can all see the pass and the anticipation rises as it's made, it's a footrace and CJ, maligned as he is in certain situations, is an absolute top tier player in this particular circumstance. He goes, it's classic CJ, push, run, push run, past one, the covering run never makes him, he pokes it further and catches it again, for a horrible moment I think he's run it out of play but he's got this, he's pulling it back and there's Ennis, like a modern day Andy Watson, peeling of his man at the front post and scuffing it home, a shot so skewed and scruffy that he has to take a moment to watch it home before reeling away in a pure moment of strikers delight... YES!!!!!
If earlier the embers started glowing, now the flames are flickering. There's time to win this. There's time to make this into a joyous comeback against the odds season shaping win. We can do this.
C'MON POOL!
Lee Evans has had a strange game today. He's looked dicey, sluggish and given it away, more than once he's looked anonymous in a way he doesn't normally and yet, he's been great in the last 15 minutes and he plays an absolutely pearler of a pass out to Coulson who takes it beautifully, runs hard and unleashes a thunderbolt of an effort from distance that I assume the keeper gets fingertips to because we're awarded a corner. That would have been some way to win it, a goal of stunning quality that sadly wasn't quite realised.
Mansfield know this game needs wrapping up. They spoil for time, they make subs. They fall on the ball when they can. Gone is the zip and purpose and now they get behind the ball. They frustrate us and the seconds tick by. Normal time turns to injury time and even though we have centre back Husband overlapping on the left wing and are throwing Casey forward when we can, we can't find the chance. In fact, right at the end, in trying to build a final attack from the back, Casey hammers it needlessly hard at Gabriel who equally needlessly lets it slip under his foot and gifts Mansfield a throw level with our box. It comes to nothing, but serves as a reminder of how poor we were before the efforts of the last 20 minutes.
---
On the plus side, as a spectacle, it was way better than Tuesday. It wasn't quite 'football, bloody hell' but it at least had some range in its emotional impact. I felt hope, I felt frustration, I felt really quite pissed off, then I cheered up again. On Tuesday I felt mainly as if I'd like to go home and go to bed. The spirit we have is also a positive. Set aside how good the players are (or not) and it can't be denied that they can fight their way back into a game. This wasn't the case last year and in and of itself, it's worth something.
All three subs had good games - I though Fletcher in particular was genuinely excellent and lit up other players. Carey looked brighter Ennis had something to play around and we had someone to aim for. Coming back into a game always feels good and it's fair to say that there was some real purpose to us later in the game.
All of that doesn't disguise that overall, it wasn't a good performance at all. Defensively, we were shocking, which is out of character for us of late. I think personally, that stemmed from two things:
a) we had no control in midfield at all. Mansfield dictated play and made the centre circle and beyond their own. I have a near obsession with the fact we lack an athletic, disruptive physical presence in midfield and this was never more apparent than today. Evans just couldn't keep up with the role of defensive shield and Morgan got brushed off like someone flicking away loose lint off the sleeve of a coat.
b) the change of shape threw us - it was a bold move and Bruce was right in my humble football blogging know it all but not really know anything much if we're honest opinion to try it - we didn't however look ready for it and played passes short, or dithered as if we didn't know where the runners would be. or where and how to move for this system. The lack of wingers also really upset the defensive shape as both full back were exposed horribly and whilst Offiah had the pace to cope, Husband's days of being able to run the whole flank are behind him. Apter and Sivera were betwixt and between, never close enough to Ennis to give him something to play with or off but also not really offering any cover or particularly getting into the game.
So ultimately, the first half performance would say it was the wrong choice - but it was a mistake I think we needed to make, even if only to highlight what we don't have and how the formation can change, but the shortages in the squad can't be covered up easily. You can't play lower league football effectively without at least one combative midfielder in your squad. I will keep saying this until I'm blue in the face. We need an athlete who can tackle. It's obvious. How we haven't acted upon this is beyond me because it's not even a particularly classy player we need. Just someone with an engine to cover, tackle, fight and do the dirty work in particular games where that's needed. Marcus fucking Bean for a new era would be fine. It's writ large and I think today showed what we lack as much as any deficits in what we have. Players will have bad games individually, it will always be so - but when you simply don't have a particular part of the jigsaw then it impacts the whole unit over and over again.
Bruce has to take credit for changing it. He did so decisively and showed some aggression in doing so. Clough had set up Mansfield brilliantly, but Bruce managed us back into the game and as has been noted before, for all our shortcomings, the tactical acumen in game is rarely the issue these days.
All in all, it was entertaining enough but really, I can't help feeling that the big takeaway is - we didn't do enough in January. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if Sadler is setting managers perverse challenges to fulfil bets or something. Last year it seemed Critchley's mission in life was to finish 8th. This year it's as if we're on some kind of multi-million pound draw bonus. Who knows. Such is the surreal world of Blackpool FC.
Middle table scrapping draw kings of global football.
Onward
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