‘Pool scrape through…

On a cold day in November, Blackpool finally broke their Galpharm duck with a hard-fought 1-0 victory versus Huddersfield Town.

The first thing to mention must be the fantastic away support from the Blackpool faithful. 1570 fans made the trip from the north west – although not forgetting those Yorkshire Seasiders who made the short trip from various towns in the white rose county. They weren’t the best conditions for playing football – overcast, blustery throughout…and not forgetting the heavens opening during the 2nd half!!

‘Pool looked the brighter of the two sides going forward during the first half, with Morrell and Parker posing the greater attacking threat than the Huddersfield front-line. Huddersfield’s only chances in the first period came from disputable freekick decisions – one of which given for a very slight nudge on the attacker after a two-footed jump tackle by one of the Huddersfield players (one of THREE in the first half….ALL went unpunished!).

The 2nd half began with the ‘Pool shooting towards the mass support of the travelling fans in torrid conditions, with the wind and pouring rain directly in Rhys Evans’ face! This would result in the hairiest moment of the 90minutes for the Blackpool shot stopper. His poor clearance landed at the feet of the Huddersfield midfielder, who let rip on the half-volley from the half way line, only for the ball to bounce up off the wet surface, over the head of the stranded Evans and bounce off the crossbar – only for Shaun Barker to clear!

The deadlock was broken on 70minutes when Keigan Parker’s cross bounced off the arm of the Town defender which the referee deemed to be a penalty. Wes Hoolahan tucked the ball away after a sneaky dummy to deceive the goalkeeper.

The last ten minutes was a feisty affair with Blackpool on the back foot and Luke Beckett – serial goalscorer against us it seems – coming off the bench in search of an equaliser. Even the Town goalkeeper popped up in the penalty area on three occasions during set-pieces.

However, Blackpool held on for the victory and left the travelling fans over the moon and, with any luck, an easy tie in the 2nd Round as we look towards a hopeful tie with a “big team” in the 3rd Round.
Toronto’s Thoughts
Through to the next round of the cup. Job done. We played at times some very good stuff in monsoon like conditions, and bossed the second half – up until the last 15, where obviously ‘Uddersfield were going to put us under some heavy pressure. For all that pressure, the only meaningful attempt on goal in that spell was a shot rifled wide. Not even Glennon in the home goal charging up could pose the ‘pool problems.

We again battled as a team, especially at the back. It`s been a long time since we`ve had such a unified defence. Jackson looks to be the key in there, even though he isn`t the most gifted. In goal, Evans did alright, but was nearly caught short again when they hit the bar.

I`m a bit worried about our narrow tactics in midfield. It was a huge wide pitch on Saturday and it surprised me that the home side didn`t flood the wings. Forget all this swapping wings with Forbes and Hoolahan, why can`t they just stick to their positions?

In my opinion, one that many will disagree with, Forbes had a poor game, and isn`t a patch on what he was pre injury. Very narrow, especially when defending, he was caught in no mans land several times throughout the 90 minutes. However, he did extremely well for the penalty award!

The front two had nothing to feed off, but Morrell ran well, and Parker kept the ball in the second half sturdily in the box. Our front two had much more of a clue than the opponents counter parts. Thankfully for us Pawel Abbott didn`t get off the bench and Luke Beckett didn`t have chance to make an impact, lucky us!

Bring on whoever they may be!!