Except, of course, it does matter. If we could get even a tiny bit far in the competition it would suddenly become a very meaningful thing indeed.
What's more, there's an undercurrent of unease at the moment. Appleton seem's to breaking up the gang to make a new better gang in his stony image but it's not been so easy to get people in the club house (or for that matter, to kick them out.) Time will tell if this is the right time for a major rebuild but if things don't go well tonight then it's a set up for a classic early season doom scenario.
I drive an unusual route to the ground and it strikes me what a mad place Blackpool is. I see roller coaster tracks and muse at how close up, they look so basic. I see someone roller skating between their front door and their car boot like that's normal. I wonder why Lytham is generally accepted to be part of Blackpool but Fleetwood is another country. I'm looking forward to this. Stop panicking. This will be good. We've just been a bit short of a decent preseason, it's a new system. Give it time. Play a kid or two. Get a bit of raw energy in and score a few goals.
He doesn't put a kid or two in. He puts in other people's kids so Rob Apter will likely face another season without a 'Pool appearance despite having first played more than 18 months ago against a side playing at a higher level than Barrow. Still, we've got Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Wolves to think of, so fuck our own kids development eh?
Anyway... We're ready...
Patino is doing defensive things... I wasn't sure if he did that. He at least attempts to, so that's a thing. We have a corner. Is that Marvin, with back heeled effort???? I don't know, but if it is, it's definitely a sign that this will be TOTAL FOOTBALL ARMAGEDDON. BLACKPOOL 20 - BARROW 0. There's a handball. Barrow break. Fiorini has a wild, wild tackle vaulted that he's likely relieved that missed. They're just pouring down our right like water. Thompson comes across to other side to deal with it. I like him already.
Everyone is singing about the Arsenal kid cos that's what we do now it seems. Patino passes it out of play. Everyone claps him doing that like they're actually mad. Patino takes the ball. Such a lovely touch... shimmy. He's caught in possession. A shiver round the ground. What if he's not actually any good? Finally he lofts a beautiful pass. CJ's regulation ping pong ball control renders it moot. A cross field sweep requiring the most basic control from our pacy wing wing wizard goes exactly the same way a moment later.
Patino gives ball away again. Barrow neatly get down their left. A cross. Connolly absolutely definitely handballs it in the box. Thompson breaks though. CJ takes over and runs about like he's Google maps when it can't lock on to GPS, he's going this way, that way, spinning round. Needless to say, it comes to nothing. The Mountie tackles himself with a stepover. Nice to meet you Theo! Thompson is then defeated by taking a throw in that rolls backwards out of his hands instead of forward onto the pitch.
Hmmm.
Thorniley who probably is waiting to be loaned out to Mansfield or something cos all football managers hate him has done ok and his lovely sand wedge pass from just inside our half sets Thompson away. Pool win a corner, then another but don't get lucky. Patino loses the ball, half wins it back and Dougall comes across and gives him a lesson in tackling.
Some time passes where I mostly notice the advertising boards changing colour in my peripheral vision like a mild trip. Lavery wriggles away, turns nicely, crosses deep. It eventually comes to the Mountie who cuts inside well and shoots low to near post bring good save. It's a shot! On goal! We're like Brasil only better!
Fiorini then takes his turn to lose it carelessly after good work from the Mountie who slipped him free with a clever ball. Barrow gallop forward like a sturdy barrel rolling down a cobbled street, there's a certain momentum to their stolid progress that is getting dangerous as they gather pace and Marv steps in with a great header to save the City kid's blushes.
Connolly gets cheeky in the corner by standing up and blocking his man then gets clattered for his trouble. Barrow don't fuck about. We, it has to be said, from the showing so far are fucking about quite a lot.
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Meh. Something is missing. The Mountie has done ok-ish, Thorniley has played pretty well and Dougall has just done Dougally things but we've looked lost, passive, lacking in ideas and frankly a bit naive.
---
The moon rises over the East Stand bathing the field of dreams in soft blue and pink backdrop. It's beautiful. Connolly responds to such soul stirring stuff by shanking the ball out of play under no pressure.
Thompson gets a throw right! It's either clever quick throw or Barrow's full back has been distracted by the spectacle of the sky and as a result Fiorini has forever to pick out Lavery. He does it well and Lavery runs onto it, the goal at his mercy, the keeper nowhere and... misses the ball completely. Everyone sings the Patino song again. We're like those teenage girls that insist they are definitely going out with a boyband member, interpreting everything they do as a sign that, even though they've never met him, they are his one true love and passion. It seems we see everything Patino does, whatever it is, is he does as a sign he's brilliant... I hope he is. I'm sure he's better than this. He's shown a few flashes of absolute quality but he looks like a kid. He is a kid.
We give the ball away again. Barrow opt for the simpler chant of "Barrow... Barrow." They make a decent enough noise all night. It's probably exciting to not be in the 1970s for them.
CJ (yes, CJ) starts a beautiful move with a little flick and square ball. The resulting passing spreads the play all the across the pitch and ends with the Mountie blasting over. That's better. Patino then spreads play with a first time touch. It's a ball to die for. "Charlie Patino (etc)" The tempo and the crowd lift. It's coming... Here we go! Lavery bursts away, lays it to Fiorini who finds space with a devilish feint that leaves the full back flailing at where he was. Fiorini gives it back to Lavery for a certain goal... Imagine that little intake of breath before the roar...
He didn't score. I don't know how. I can't describe it. I've blanked it out. It's too painful. He just somehow didn't score when it looked impossible not to not score.
3 subs come on. Chantless Jimmy Husband, Jordan Gabriel (ooh, aaah) and Bez "is he actually still with us for real?" Lubala are on. Patino goes off to boyband screams and Kenny and the Mountie trot off in his wake, like roadies at a Harry Styles concert.
We keep playing the higher tempo game. It's better than it was. A nice scooped pass. CJ is in... he shoots hard, he's done ok there, the keeper spills it and it falls to Lavery who is a millimetre from walking it in. He's so frustrated with his lot that their keeper actually consoles him. We have a corner. Lavery wins his duel, heads it down, it bounces over the top. Fucking hell. You could douse him in ethanol, put him in a match factory and drop a hydrogen bomb on it at the moment and he wouldn't catch fire. How many mirrors has the lad smashed?
Carey is on now and he pulls out a genius ball, lifting it from deep, spotting a great run from CJ. You'll never guess what happened next! His. Final. Touch. Let. Him. Down. Let me digress for a moment. Recently, my sensible reasonably priced midrange estate car expired. I needed a new car. My other half is superior to me in many ways but in the world of cars, she is clueless. She found a car on Facebook exchange. "It's free!" she said excitedly. It looks great! It did look good in many ways. It had electric windows and nice alloys, a spoiler and lovely big leather seats. There was just one problem. It had no engine. That's basically how I see CJ. He does such good things sometimes, but he's undermined by one fundamental flaw that is too big to overlook and too costly to make good. I suppose the metaphor is a bit strained, but I'm running out of ways to say 'CJ does some good stuff then cocks it up'
Then to add to the general sense of calamity Marv and CJ both don't shoot and instead run into each other after Bez has a shot charged down. It breaks kindly though, Lavery smacks it. It's surely in. It's deflected. What does he have to actually do? I think he needs exorcising or something. Carey has a tigerish run. He's got a bit of fight about him. He makes the space and Fiorini takes it, hitting a fizzing, swerving effort, the keeper arcing away to left to make a decent save.
Husband is on and doing well in a surprisingly advanced role. He puts a decent cross in. He links well. He plays the loveliest weighted pass. CJ races on to it and.... falls over. He literally kicks the air and collapses in a heap. The half empty north stand lets out a collective gasp of angst.
Carey runs away from goal, pivots then feeds Gabriel. He whips it in... It's CJ fucking Hamilton!!! His header is tipped over.
Barrow have a free kick. Bez concedes it. He's on yellow already having been feisty early and I'm slightly concerned he might be on a yellow + cos he had a right strop and chucked the ball away when he got that card. It would be such a 'Bez's Blackpool career' thing to get sent off in this game... He's not sent off. Rooney (not that one) takes and Maxwell (who does nowt wrong tonight) saves well and holds the ball, springs up, bowls out to Husband - he finds Carey who again lofts a lovely ball. Lavery brings it down, turns, finds space and hits a low shot. It's on target but he just doesn't look like he believes he'll score.
Charlie Patino gets man of the match. Why? Is this what Beatlemania was like? Am I seeing this how other people see Club Gaz? Fuck's sake, I was trying to do a match report without mentioning Madine and now I've fucked it. Anyway...
Time is running out... Carey has another go... racing away he beats one. Takes on another, goes past but he's chopped down. Sonny gets angry. The ref is a peacemaker. He takes the floated free kick, Marv wins it but it balloons away.
Penalties.. for fuck's sake Pool. The moon is now high above the south, it's big and incredible as the craters are visible The surface of another planetary body. Mad. I never get bored of the moon. I'm wondering, as I wait for the penalties, how it is that the same species of people who literally put people on that rock in outer space also pass their time watching people kick a ball into a rectangle and get so worked up about it.
They score - Connolly is a banker... No he isn't. He blasts it, but it's a good save. (0-1)
They score - Now it's... Husband? What the fuck? Jimmy will obviously miss. Jimmy steps up. He stutters. He hits the back of the net! Never doubted you Jimmy. (1-2)
They score... Bez.... does a funny run around and... scores! (2-3)
They score...Shayne... just kicks it at the keeper. Why bother? When it's not you night, it's not your night... (2-4)
I start to leave but halfway down the step I realise the ref has taken pity on Lavery. He's giving him another go!
He'e we go...Maxwell saves! Yes! Everything is good again. This is the moment the season pivoted on. No more doom, no more gloom, no more pessimism...
Fiorini spots it up. He's so confident. This is what you want. A young kid with no fear. He'll break the net... He strides in and smacks it... into the South stand. Of course he does.
Fuck's sake Pool.
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I dunno. I really don't. Firstly, I'm not going to question the quality of the kids we've got. They're clearly decent at football and I thought Fiorini did ok and if Patino is half the prospect he's supposed to be, he'll improve. He wasn't great tonight but that's ok cos he's fucking 18. Them being the beating heart of our side and ironing out the kinks in their game with us is a brave choice though. I hope it pays off. For the sake of the song if nowt else!
We didn't really cause enough problems. Yeah, we should have scored and yeah, Lavery could have had a hat trick but this wasn't a weakened team and Barrow were resolute but rarely threatened us and whilst it felt like 'one of them nights' it also didn't feel as if we really pushed until well into the game. Again, it clearly took a bollocking at half time to get us playing even remotely like it...
This is clearly the ugly bit of the transformation from one style to the next and we don't really seem to know who we are. The first half was dreadful. Slow paced, unadventurous and stale and whilst the second half was better, I found myself frustrated at the number of times we seemed to start a passing move only for someone to decide to take it solo and lose the ball when there was an alternative progressive pass on. I've missed the first two league games, but the same concerns I had in preseason were there. At times we didn't seem to have a method to our play.
If I'm forced to be positive, I did like the flashes where players really moved about, Yeah, we ran into each other a bit and I'm clutching at straws but it was noticeable that we were much less positionaly static as the game went on and there were some nice runs late in the game. The flipside of the positivity is that palpably lacking was the kind of togetherness that was our best feature under
There's a lot that could be said about the broader picture and the coherence of various strategies but this blog is already too long and the season is but young... Fuck it. It's only the League Cup. If that doesn't give some players (and maybe people dealing with bidding for new ones) a kick up the arse then what will. Husband and Gabriel are both good at giving some tempo as well, so there's that. More straws clutched maybe.
It would be 100% pure Blackpool to go and deck Swansea... Lavery won't be able to stop now... Tidal waves of goals. Dixie Dean's record broken by March.
Onward!
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