Blackpool 1-3 WBA: A Blackpool Perspective
By Sam Abbott
April 9 2008
West Brom and 1700 fans travelled to Bloomfield Road hoping to go top of the table with a win and put the disappointment of the FA Cup loss behind them. However it was the Seasiders who were on top for the opening 15 minutes, who kept the same team which gained an impressive point away at Crystal Palace over a week ago.
12 minutes in Stephen Crainey delivered a great ball in to Ben Burgess who should have scored but the dodge Dean Kiely, whose kicking was sometimes awful, this time made a fantastic save and tipped it on to the bar. Blackpool were creating all the pressure and noise and the fans were winding Albion up with songs such as “We all won at Wembley”.
West Brom had been denied space and were happy to be trying to counter Blackpool and a warning came from the Baggies when Koren charged into the box with Ian Evatt stopping him.
Chris Brunt went for glory with a long range effort which dipped just to late with Pool keeper Paul Rachubka stranded on his 6 yard line.
But it was still all Blackpool and Stephen McPhee should have done better but was out-muscled and couldn’t bring the ball down to a one-on-one situation and the attack was wasted, but 35 minutes in Stephen Crainey once again found Burgess from a free-kick and the tall striker made no mistake this time, heading into the bottom corner of the goal.
With all the domination and the fact West Brom hadn’t scored in two previous games, it was unlikely one goal would be enough but that’s all Simon Graysons men could manage in the first half as it ended 1-0.
A mate said to me “even if we score 4, they will score 5, look at their bench - they would walk into our team and be our best players” and with a division this close - 20 points separate 1st place West Brom and 17th place Pool, that could be the difference.
When the teams came back out there was a different West Brom team as they looked up for it. Personally I was disappointed as it seemed we were going to try and defend a 1-0 lead against the top scorers in the division, who can turn there game on when they want and I have thought that Blackpool have done so much better when we have gone for it - just like the first half, were just not a defensive team. Tony Mowbray must have said something as they started the half much brighter and looked different to the first half.
It still wasn’t as though they were any better than Blackpool. Kiely saved well from a McPhee shot, and Wes Hoolahan broke down the wing, the ball finally falling to the head of Gary Taylor-Fletcher but he could only aim at Kiely.
The Baggies needed something different and introduced Kevin Phillips, who changed the game.
With 80 minutes gone, a penalty was awarded to the away team, albeit Carl Hoefkens
looked like he dived much to the annoyance of the home fans. Phillips expertly finished the penalty and levelled the match, despite the Baggies not really testing Rachubka much up to then.
Blackpool players, obviously frustrated, lost concentration after the goal, which they have done so many times this season and conceded again when Miller got the ball across the goal for Phillips to knock in from about half a yard.
Grayson ordered his men to respond and push forward for an equaliser but Ishmael Miller exploited the space and scored a fantastic goal to wrap up 3 points and take them top.
It was unlucky for Blackpool who deserved at least a point but when you have players such as Phillips and Morrison on your bench you will always have a chance of snatching the game. Blackpool haven't won in 7 games which is worrying at this stage of the season but the fans will keep faith and hopefully we can get 3 important points at Cardiff on Saturday. Hopefully West Brom will go up, because in that last 10 minutes they played some fantastic football and you would rather see those teams in the Premiership than the ‘hoofball’ teams like Stoke.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:04:09:21:33:48 by Scotty - mackem.
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