Orange Inconsistancy = Smug Sam : Blackpool 1 – 2 Blackburn

The overriding emotion to come from Bloomfield Road after this week will be smugness eminating from the away team dugout where Sam Allardyce sat and watched his Blackburn take all three points back to Ewood Park. After delivering their best season in 18 years, the then prison-bound Chairman Owen Oyston sacked ‘Big Fat Sam’, a move that clearly saw him still smarting as he returned to the coast.

This blog recently explored the nature of Ian Holloways unique view of the situation, before a game which exposed the Darwinian truthes of winning football/pretty football dichotomy that burdens the Premier League and below. the opening exchanges saw ‘Pool all over Blackburn, whipping in high quality deliveries and were extreamley unlucky to go behind when Captain Charlie Adam turned a harmless cross into his own goal. Matt Gilks in Blackpool’s goal kept them in it, but the most pleasing thing to see was that everytime orange shirts hustled the Blackburn goal, it was either through tidy build up play or vicious balls swung in from either flank. Nothing displeasing on the eye to fans with an eye for a good show.

The emergance of 19 year old new signing Matt Philips, slashing home a drive along the floor in the bottom corner was the highlight for anyone who saw the highlights of the game. It was probably typically (un)just that the goal that won the game was a scrappy semi-clean swipe that bobbled into the bottom corner past Gilks hand after some questionable clearing from the Blackpool backline.

Holloway stuck the nail on the head with his post-match comments; “In the first-half, after that goal went in, we felt a bit sorry for ourselves and made a few wrong choices, but I felt second-half that was probably the best we’ve played since I’ve been here. It was exhilarating to watch”. And it was. The sad truth of the whole affair is that Blackpool’s misbalance toward floor-based entertainment has much to learn from the proven pragmatism of Big Fat Sam and The Like.

Category: Blackpool Team News