It’s been a weird summer for us fans. First there was the despair as Charlie Adam and David Vaughan left. Then there was optimism as the club became very busy in the transfer market. Now there’s apprehension as although we clearly have real depth to our squad, there are question marks over whether we have the required quality in depth or whether we’re much of a muchness.
In our final pre-season friendly, a ‘Pool side that should have been good enough to beat their non league opponents Lancaster slipped to a 3-1 defeat. Alarm bells? No. But definite cause for concern.
Assistant manager Steve Thompson took charge of the side with Ian Holloway watching from the stands as ‘Pool lined up thus: Halstead, Dodd, Llera, Eastham, Bignot, Tomsett, Husband, Djordjic, Almond, Bruna, Barkhuizen.
Just minutes into the game the hosts were awarded a penalty after yet another error by Stephen Husband. Mark Halstead saved the effort from twelve yards well though.
It didn’t take Lancaster long to open the scoring though; Clark firing low past Halstead after being fed through.
And it was soon 2-0; Marshall heading home a cross.
Gerardo Bruna has proved to be somewhat of an enigma since his arrival at Liverpool; he’s shown flashes of what he can do, but is far from consistent. After a quiet first half at The Giant Axe tonight, the midfielder rattled the woodwork with a freekick, much like he did earlier this summer v Rangers.
Tom Barkhuizen then headed against the bar from a corner as the Seasiders finally began to get involved in the game.
Barkhuizen and Llera then both missed sitters, before Lancaster missed a great chance themselves to wrap the game up just before the break.
HT: Lancaster 2-0 Blackpool
‘Pool made no changes at the break, but did make a change after a quiet start to the second half; Josh Egan replacing Adam Dodd.
Paul Bignot was then also replaced and minutes later Lancaster went 3-0 up.
Halstead then pulled out a great save to prevent further embarrassment for the ‘Pool, before Liam Tomsett was also replaced.
Trialist Llera then did his chances of earning a contract at Bloomfield Road no harm at all by scoring a freekick from fully 30 yards out.
All in all though, whoever Ollie picks to play at Hull on Friday night is going to have to play much better than those who were involved tonight did, and indeed better than we have (on the whole) this pre-season.
Interesting times ahead, for sure.
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The lad who scored the 3rd goal used to be on Blackpool’s books before going to Hearts was in same youth team as Halstead and Eastham