All the interest and excitement before this game was around the opening of the two new stands at Bloomfield Road. It was a day that the Blackpool fans have waited many years, even decades to see, and the ground was pretty well full to its new capacity of 9,000. Unfortunately, as often happens when Blackpool encourage a large crowd to come to see them, the end result of the game was disappointing. They played well for much of the match, but two defensive blunders were heavily punished, and in footballing terms they went home empty-handed.When the game finally kicked off, a few minutes late to allow the crowds to find their way into the new stands, Blackpool were playing the same starting eleven as they had used in the win on Tuesday night at Wycombe. That meant O'Kane and Jaszczun at fullback, Reid and Marshall in the centre, a midfield of Hills, Collins and Wellens, and Walker, Murphy and Taylor up front - though Taylor seemed to me to be playing a bit deeper today, certainly further back than the other two forwards.
Blackpool kicked off towards the new Mortensen Stand, the north end, and the pattern of the first half was quickly established. Blackpool had the majority of the play by far, keeping the pressure on particularly up the left wing. Hills had an early chance, trying for a spectacular shot from well outside the box on the left, but it flew very wide. Huddersfield really only had attacking opportunities when Blackpool made mistakes in defence, which was more often than it should have been - the pitch did not help, it seems to be getting worse all the time. However when Huddersfield did get onto the attack the defence handled the crosses well, and they were confined to shots from long range.
At the other end Blackpool were peppering the box with crosses, but the strong wind was not making it easy to judge them, and Hills put over two consecutively which flew well over all the heads and harmlessly out. One ball in from Taylor on the right caused the defence problems, first Walker and then Murphy attempted to get a shot in as they scrambled with the defence in the centre of the goal, but the ball would not drop for them, and it was cleared.
Wellens was having a good game, controlling midfield and making runs forward, while Collins operated well in support of him. Wellens made one run across the edge of the box from right to left, eventually shaping a shot towards the top left corner, but he could not get enough curl on it and it flew wide. Another cross from the right saw Walker clash with a defender in the air, and the ball came across to Hills who prevented it going out for a goal kick, and he pulled it back to where he thought Walker would be. Unfortunately the Blackpool player was still down on the ground, and the ball was cleared. A little later came Blackpool's best chance of the half, as Wellens ran into the box again. He lost it but Walker managed to twist and hit a shot past the keeper, but it struck the right hand post and came out, and in the following melee the referee blew for a foul against Blackpool.
So the first half ended with Blackpool dominating the play, but failing to turn this into goals. However they broke the duck almost immediately after the restart; a corner on the right, taken short by Wellens to Taylor, I think, and the cross to the near post was touched in by Marshall - although the announcer credited it to Murphy. Blackpool continued to have more of the game for a while, and Walker could have made it two, when he got to the ball in the box, but he tried to flick it past the keeper who just turned it away for a corner on the left. However Huddersfield are a good team, in the playoff places, and they were not about to crumble. They started to put more pressure on the Blackpool defence, and the strain began to show. It seemed that in the first half Blackpool were first to every ball, now they were second, and long passes upfield were especially troubling to the defence. Eventually another long ball up the left allowed the winger to beat Jaszczun to the ball. The cross was blocked but it was played back to another Huddersfield player, who played a long cross beyond the far post. There O'Kane was marking Knight, the smallest player I have seen on a football pitch since the days of Junior Bent. However, despite this, the forward judged the dropping ball better, and headed it back in the air, over the stranded Barnes, and into the far side of the goal.
In the remaining twenty minutes the game could have gone either way. Huddersfield made three changes, and with fifteen minute left Blackpool brought on Bullock to replace Walker. Bullock made several useful runs up the right, and one of these, as full time approached, nearly led to a Blackpool winner. He surged past his man, and immediately played a curving pass forward into the centre, where Murphy managed to get to it first. He took one touch, and then with a great chance to score, he drove it yards wide of the right hand post.
Three minutes of injury time had gone by, and the game looked like ending in a draw, when Huddersfield made one last attack. They took the ball up the right, and a cross was played into the Blackpool box from a deep position. There were three defenders plus Barnes in the area, and the only attacker was the midget, Knight. However the defenders all failed to attack the ball and Knight got there first, slipping between O'Kane and Marshall and flicking the ball neatly past Barnes's left hand and into the net.
There was barely time to kick off before the whistle went, and the new stands had seen their first defeat. It is to be hoped that the fans who turned out for the occasion will not desert the club after one reverse - Blackpool certainly played well, and you could say that they did not deserve to lose. However this is by no means the first game they have played where they were clearly the better team, but lost because of silly lapses in defence. Chris Clarke was on the bench today - perhaps he will add some solidity to the shaky back line.
Team (4-3-3): Barnes, O'Kane, Marshall, Reid, Jaszczun, Wellens, Collins, Hills, Taylor, Walker (Bullock 76), Murphy.