The good news, 2 points off the playoffs. The bad news, 2 points off League 2. After a poor first two months, it was time Hendry?s men kicked on, and quickly. This happens too much in all walks of lif
Ray Olivier!!!
The man on a mission. Stop ?pool from gaining a point or maybe three! Swansea away was the first game of the month, with plenty of support travelling down from Blackpool. The team showed great resilience in that being down by a goal twice and coming back, but then failing to cement the point was a travesty. Granted, Leon Britton?s strike 5 minutes from time was slightly controversial, but the team should have been able to hold out. Keigan Parker and Ciaron Donnelly twice pulled ?pool level, cancelling out Lee Trundle?s and Akinfenwa?s goals, which showed good signs for the future possibly.
Holding On, As Before
Usually people say ?If only the game was 80 minutes long, and we?d win the league!? Didn?t apply against Colchester that. A drab game, with Greg Halford scoring twice, sandwiching Tommy Wright?s goal in the 90th minute. Neil Danns ruled the midfield, without challenge, and a certain Sam Stockley made Jamie Burns look extremely poor and out of his depth, perhaps he was? So, good character again to peg the game back and looking as though we?d rescued a point. But to throw it away as we did was clearly alarming to all, which raised pressure on the manager.
Even Worse!
I?d actually forgotten how bad this month was! 2-0 and cruising away at Oakwell, home of Barnsley, in the 80th minute, you would think 3 points are going home with you, surely? Not Blackpool?s way. Not Colin Hendry?s way. Two goals in two minutes put pay to the 3 points and a first win in four. Simon Wiles and Tommy Wright had put ?pool in the box seat, until the management had their say on things. Defending deep is the most over used tactic in football. It just should not be used! Clearly invites the opposition to attack hard at you, and leaves the defence under extreme pressure. This was the case at Oakwell. Defending deep from the 68th minute is ludicrous. Why do it? Serious questions asked?
LDV
The competition has been good to us in the past, under McMahon. Hendry won in round one, a 4-3 win against League 2 side Wrexham. Nice breather for the squad.
No Late Goals…!
In fact, no goals at all! The blend wasn?t quite there! Although this was an excellent point against high flying Brentford, we couldn?t combine a clean sheet with a goal! An improvement however, the revival had to start from somewhere!
Did I hear A Cry Of A Revival?
Well what a stupid thing to say! Away at strugglers Gillingham, you have to fancy your chances, whoever you were. It looked great when Keigan Parker scored first on 23 minutes. Perhaps Brentford was the turning point? No. After what must have been a stirring team talk by the great motivator Hendry, we conceded straight away! Chris Hope finding the net, four minutes after the restart. 16 minutes later, Neil Harris scored the winner, with Parker then getting sent off. No discipline from him, further showing Hendry was out of his depth trying to handle players like Parker.
Toronto’s School Report
Shocking month. 2 points from a possible 15. The kiss of death for Hendry. Claudio Ranieri was always renowned for changing his Chelsea far too much, but he did have good players, and did generally get results. We seemed to have another ?tinker man? on our hands. He just could not stick with an eleven. And certainly did not get results!
The FA Cup was up next, hopefully giving some decent rest bite from the awful league form.
Postion: 21st
Grade: F
