Blackpool are a decent side. They have a solid defence, plenty of grafters and a bit of quality where it counts. The front two of Burgess and Dickov will give anyone trouble. Big Ben got a tremendous, and well deserved, reception from the City fans. Stuart Green got a mixed reception, some remembering some of the goals and craft he provided, while others obviously remembered the desertion and the high percentage of games he spent hiding from the ball.
The first half was pretty quiet really. For 20 minutes, we traded blows as both sides passed the ball quite well and tried to craft an opening. Myhill made a super save from a Blackpool head while Windass hammered a shot straight at their 'keeper. The game then stopped for 6 minutes (officially) as Bryan Hughes was stretchered off following an innocuous looking challenge in our box. The lengthy delay and the care taken to ensure Hughes's neck and spine were secure made the situation look terrible. Hughes had been bright again. He's been excellent for the last 3 months and I wish him a speedy recovery.
Neither team recovered from the delay. The half would've ended goalless but for a moment of madness from Myhill. He ran 16 yards out of his goal to punch a long ball, got nowhere near it and the ball fell for Dickov to tap in. He doesn't make many but it was a terrible mistake and handed Blackpool the advantage. Early in the second half, we gave them another. Turner lost out to Dickov in the box, Myhill came out and Dickov coolly lobbed him. It was a super finish but very poor defending. We were a bit shaky in defense all game. Early on, everyone backed off Dickov on the edge of the box, but he didn't shoot. Hoolahan found as much space a bit later on. We recovered and dealt with the front two really well but between the two goals we were all at sea.
The manager had plenty of attacking options on the bench, with Barmby, Okocha, Marney and Folan selected alongside Mark Tyler. When Hughes came off, Barmby was sent on and he had a good game, linking up well with Deano but failing to find the killer pass throughout. At 0-2, the manager then added Folan, removing Walton (who trudged off slowly despite the deficit, idiot), moving France inside and pushing Campbell onto the wing. My brother said: "Folan can't change a game". Ahem. Folan upset the defence, we pushed the full-backs on and started to pressure Blackpool. Campbell found some space on the left, skinned the full-back and rolled across goal for Folan to tap in. Game changed. We were well on top and we got level when Ricketts produced a magnificent run down the right, the otherwise garbage ref played a great advantage and Sam's looping cross dropped off the bar and into the goal, somehow. The stadium announcer gave it to Deano but all the credit belongs to our rampaging dragon.
After making two good substitutions, I thought Phil Brown messed up with #3 (as he admitted in his post-match interview). We were on top, Deano was linking up well with Barmby and we were hitting decent crossing positions. He then pulled off Deano for Marney and we lost the impetus. Marney didn't really get into the game and crowded the middle of the pitch. His only contribution was to mis-control the ball around Gorkks, who then clobbered him and received a second yellow. I don't quite understand why Browny felt the need to change things around when we were well on top. France had been utterly anonymous out wide but was doing a decent job in the middle and we looked a better team with Deano and Folan up front. It also begs the question about Okocha again. If Browny isn't going to use him when we're 0-2 down at home and doesn't trust him to play when the score is 2-2 at home to Blackpool, then what is the point of him being here? At least we saved the appearance money today.
Blackpool did a great job of running the clock down when they went down to 10, but we weren't smart enough with the ball. At one point, Wayne Brown collected a clearance. He had Ricketts to one side and Pedersen to the other. Rather than playing the ball wider to create an angle, he just hit it straight into the box so that their giant centre-back Ian Evatt could practise his heading. Too often in the last 10 we hit hopeful balls into the box rather than using our advantage and excellent pair of full-backs. On the one occasion we did get Pedersen in behind, he was taken down by the crudest of crude tackles by Jorgensen.
We missed Garcia; there wasn't any threat from the right until Ricketts started bombing on in the second half. We also lacked any penetration from the centre of midfield. Ash did a good defensive job and broke up attacks, but when he and Walton got into good attacking positions, they panicked. At home, we really need a bit more balance in the centre. By all accounts, Walton was very good at Plymouth, but for the second home game in a row, he was poor for the most part. He did hit one great half volley just wide. Fraizer Campbell also disappointed, he held on to the ball too long and wasn't alert to some of the opportunities that came his way. He still has a terrific work ethic, quite unusual for a young Premier League loanee. Windass had his best game for a while; he dominated their defensive pairing and linked up great with 'wor Nicky. Pedersen looked strong and is deceptively fit. He was unfortunate that one great run was ended when the ball just ran out of play. He jinked down the wing with the grace of a snooker player chasing a pint.
The attendance was much more like it. Well done to Blackpool whose traveling support put many of the 'big' clubs in this division to shame. The referee was poor. He had no authority and allowed situations to spiral out of control. He let the linesman make ridiculous decisions, including a push he gave against Ash, despite the ref being much better positioned and a corner he awarded despite the referee being 10 yards away, looking from the perfect angle and the linesman being 40 yards away and looking from the total wrong angle. There's no need to worry though, he gave an imaginary foul to make up for it as soon as the corner came in. He was probably right with the cautions and the sending off.
At 1-2, I thought that if we'd gone on to win the game, I'd really believe we could challenge the top 6. As it is, I'm not sure we can. What we have in our favour is that the other sides can be as inconsistent as us. I'm happier with one point than no points but in truth, it was a game we should've won. We should be sat in 6th place right now, game in hand and all. We're going to come up against more stubborn sides at the KC and we must be far more creative than today and much, much tighter at the back. It'd be nice to have Andy Dawson back very shortly, especially if Hughesy is going to be out for a while. Get well soon, Bryan.
Ratings: Myhill 6, Ricketts 8, Pedersen 7, Turner 6, Brown 6, France 5, Hughes 7 (Barmby 7), Ashbee 7, Walton 6 (Folan), Campbell 6, Windass 7 (Marney).