Capital Punishment

Has Ollie lost ‘it’? That ‘it’ being the little bit of magic that saw us promoted to the Premier League and (until recently) looked like keeping us up.

One again he bungled his team selection, and there was no evidence of what he says he learned on his trip to Spain. ‘Pool were pedestrian at best, but to describe them as ‘woeful’ would be a fairer assessment.

Blackpool never do things the easy way, but of late they have conspired to play their way into a relegation scrap and there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel for the time being.

The next seven days will be one of post-mortems, but the most damning thing for me today was the lack of fight in the team. We look like a deflated team at the moment, a team doomed for relegation. I hope I’m wrong.

Fulham dominated the first half. The first chance of the afternoon fell to Damien Duff, who saw his effort come back off the post with Richard Kingson beaten.

Minutes later though, the hosts were ahead. James Beattie’s hospital ball left Bobby Zamora and the frontman made no mistake with his finish.

Zamora then added his second, heading home Damien Duff’s freekick, but a word here about the referee – it was never a freekick. Whoever the man in the middle was, he had a poor game.

Brett Ormerod had an effort cleared off the line just before the break, but the Seasiders were powder puff up top. It was like they were playing rugby union; continually passing the ball backward. For us to succeed at this level we need to play at a quick tempo and get at the opposition with numbers, creating space in the process. We’re simply not good enough to break down two banks of four, and if Ollie thinks otherwise then he really has lost ‘it’.

With twenty minutes to go, Holloway threw on Varney, Puncheon (why the hell he didn’t start after his performance against Blackburn is beyond me) and Kornilenko, but it was far too little, far too late and the hosts added a third – Etuhu tapping in as the ‘Pool defence stood ball watching.

‘Pool did have chances in the second half but couldn’t find the consolation goal that their magnificent support richly deserved.

Back to the drawing board for Ollie. Let’s hope that he remembers the basics from earlier in the season because the pressure’s really on now.