Blackpool 0 Halifax Town 1- Turkeys & puddings
John Seckers Match Report (26th December 2000)
All this year, ever since Steve McMahon took over as manager, Blackpool have regularly given their fans reason for hope, and then suddenly dashed it. Last season we were several times convinced that we could escape relegation, only for a run of poor results to drop us back into the mire. This season we start to believe we can push up into the playoffs, and then we flop in a game which we should win easily. After excellent performances against Exeter and York, Blackpool should have swept Halifax aside. Instead their failure in front of goal destroyed their confidence, and they ended the match looking clueless.
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After all this pressure with no result, you felt that something would go wrong for Blackpool, and at the mid-point of the first half it did so with a vengeance. The referee, who had a very poor game, decided to book Coid for a challenge which didn't even look like a foul. As he did so we saw that Hills was being substituted - I didn't see any incident so presumably he had pulled his hamstring again. Bushell came on in his place, but this meant that the left side was in disarray for a moment. Halifax immediately attacked up that wing, and broke past Jaszczun. Reid went across to cover, but the winger got his cross in anyway, from near the corner flag. With Reid missing from the centre a Halifax forward was able to get in a shot at the near post. Barnes saved it very well, but the ball rebounded to the same forward, who drove it back across the keeper and into the far corner of the goal.
The situation could hardly have been worse for Blackpool - as well as going a goal down, they had lost by far their most potent attacking threat. Bushell did not have a good game, and in fact he himself was substituted late in the game when Nowland was brought on. Ormerod had done little in the early exchanges, but he started to come into the game more as time went by. Jaszczun was made the man of the match, but he did not convince me. He was constantly offered opportunities to get forward down the left, but he never moved as fast as he should have. In fact Coid impressed me more than his opposite number - he did look more eager than usual to attack his man and push forward.
The rest of the game was a long steady decline in Blackpool's performance and confidence. They didn't have any luck, but they didn't earn any. A good example in the first half - Ormerod charged the ball down wide on the right wing, and chased it to the corner. When he looked up there was only Murphy in the box, marked by about six defenders, and no Blackpool midfielder within twenty yards of the area. Ormerod wasforced to try to take the ball in himself, and lost it. Before the break Blackpool had another great chance to level it, when Reid rose to a corner and had a free header, but it seemed to be blocked by a Blackpool player and was cleared.
After the interval, Blackpool continued to generate chances, and to waste them. Simpson ran into the box on the left, but his shot was saved well. Ormerod worked hard, and put a few crosses over, but the crucial header never came. The best chance of this half came from another corner, which was crossed about 12 yards out to Reid. He powered a header into a mass of players, and it bounced out nicely to him. He blasted in a shot but amazingly he didn't even hit the target and put it wide of the far post.
Things were getting ever more disorganised; Blackpool had a lot of possession but seemed unable to think what to do with it. Again and again the ball went across midfield or backwards, often back to Barnes. It is all very well being patient if you are waiting for something positive to come, but this was simply lack of ideas. Blackpool get away with this when Hills is on the pitch, because when the ball arrives at his feet it is only going one way, towards the goal. Missing him, we looked clueless. Things could have got worse, as the loss of confidence got to the defence - more than once in the second half the ball was given away in dangerous positions, and only poor finishing by Halifax prevented the deficit getting worse.
Wellens was brought on for Collins with about twenty minutes left, and Nowland a few minutes later, but they could make no real difference.Nowland did play one cross from the left which curved in close to the foot of the far post, but there was no-one there to turn it in. Clarkson and Simpson both had possession in the box, but could not get the ball into the right place for a shot. Given the situation I would say that the crowd were remarkably patient, but by the end there was a fair amount of anger, not at any particular player, but at the failure of the team to put anything together in attack. The whistle went, and Blackpool had given away three points.
The problem has not changed - we do not have anyone who can regularly put away the chances which we are creating in abundance. Ormerod is awinger, Murphy is a big target man; neither is a striker. It is testimony to the number of chances which the team is creating that both men have reached double figures. The problem is that if a goal does not come from all the pressure, our opponents are going to grow in confidence and get one past the defence, which is not good enough to hold out reliably for 90 minutes. We have seen this happen against Shrewsbury, Rochdale, Yeovil and now Halifax, and it will be the root cause if we are still in the Third Division next year.
Team (4-4-2): Barnes, Coid, Jaszczun, Hughes (Capt), Reid, Collins (Wellens 77), Clarkson, Simpson, Hills (Bushell 24, Nowland 84), Ormerod, Murphy
Subs not used: Kennedy, Thompson, Wellens
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John Secker