The Vital View

What a week! It`s certainly been a roller-coaster ride for sandgrownuns, from the dream Cup draw with Chelsea to the dreaded sting in the bee`s tail via the great Super Casino swindle!

However the most worrying aspect of last week`s developments was the abject failure of any senior figure at Blackpool Football Club coming forward with a positive message. Our Chairman made a predictable statement regarding that old chestnut – the letting of office space in the South Stand, but of more interest was the total lack of communication from our East European President. I wonder why?

Given all this bad press was it really surprising that a team that had not scored an away goal since September chose Saturday to put in a devastating smash and grab display? Three up inside half an hour you had to wonder if the dark days under Colin Hendry had returned! How a defence that had for the best part of the season looked so solid could crumble so easily at the hands of the physical presence of Neil Shipperley and pace of Jo Kuffour beggars belief!

Simon Grayson must shoulder a lot of the blame for this debacle by deciding to drop both Scott Vernon and Andy Morrell to the substitutes bench. The former made his point by scoring our consolation goal, while Morrell has earned the right to be the first name on any Seasiders team sheet. In their place Keigan Parker looked worryingly out of sorts and Ben Burgess out of his depth!

Tuesday`s game against Oldham cannot come quickly enough. With Keith Southern back to provide some much needed passion in the engine room it is vital that we bounce back immediately from this setback, and re-ignite our promotion push.

Sandgroanun