The Vital View

SuddickTheKing gives BlackpoolVital his take on the 2-1 home win against Carlisle United.

This may not have been a classic but my finger nails are appreciably shorter tonight. Blackpool took the points with a battling performance against a Carlisle side who dominated possession for large parts of the game. Whilst our first goal may have had an element of good fortune the second was top class and once again emphasised the importance of Andy Morrell to the side. His off the ball running, work rate and incisive passing are worthy of a higher grade of football and his vision and poise in coolly squaring the ball for Keigan to slot home were superb. Credit to ‘Deh-deh-deh-deh’ for working his socks off for the team today too. Ironically, it was Parker who could – and should – have put clear distance between the sides with excellent chances either side of half time, but the best opportunity of all fell to ‘Santa’ Claus when a cross cleared the last defender and he controlled it but shot across the face of goal from no more than six yards out. If this sounds a bit one sided it wasn’t but in my opinion what followed in the second half should not have been a worry because the really nailed on chances were created by ‘Pool and had we taken them we would have been out of sight. That said, Carlisle impressed me with neat passing football through midfield, several times stringing together in excess of a dozen passes. Fortunately, they could not translate this superiority in the middle into goals up front. Credit has to go to our defence and for my money Michael Jackson was head and shoulders (literally) above the rest. I don’t know what the sponsors were drinking but to choose Gnashers as MOM was ridiculous. Talking of Gnashers, he yet again showed his frustrating side making great challenges and blocks but giving away possession time and time again. With Fox also failing to impose himself to any significant degree this led to Wes and Keigan struggling for supply and Carlisle totally dominating midfield.

Apparently in the away fixture we were all over them in the second half but were still beaten, so revenge was indeed sweet. Make no mistake about it, this is a game we would have lost in any of the last three/four seasons and the work ethic and resilience under pressure is there for all to see. I hope that the ‘fair weather’ fans in the record crowd will appreciate the positives from today’s game and get back to ‘Fortress Bloomers’ on Saturday – Doncaster are on fire and we will need to show all the grit and determination that we did today and more. An ‘ugly’ win? Perhaps, but isn’t that the sign of a promotion side?

My last word is about the referee. Mr Laws traditionally never does us any favours and although he wasn’t the worst we’ve seen down here, he wasn’t the best either. OK, maybe he had a case for booking Keigan for ‘inciting’ the Carlisle fans but how come Chris Billy only received a slapped wrist after scything into a ‘Pool player from behind? The inconsistency is bewildering and someone somewhere needs to have a look at a system which gives a higher priority to Keigan’s offence than to a potentially career threatening tackle.

SuddickTheKing