Blackpool Away- Quite Important

I Guess ‘Important’ Would Be The Central Theme Here

Lap it up folks. Having struggled through a whole weekend without watching our Milan-conquering poster boys dispatch another quivering wreck of a Premier League defence, tonight is but a mere island in an ocean of no-bloody-Tottenham-related football, not the return to regular football dry land we might have hoped for. The North London Derby, pencilled in for this weekend, has been moved due to the wanderers’ previous commitments in the WI’s annual bake-off (or something with a similar gravitas), so another weekend of zen-like patience, or throwing ones weight firmly behind your second team is required… so let’s make the most of tonight.

The sums are simple. Win, and we go clear into third spot, having played the same number of games as City. Lose or draw, and chelski can send us back to 5^th by the time they walk off the pitch against manure next week. MarginsosmallIdaren’tevenusethespacebar.

Looking on the bright side, as tends to be the default setting for even the most battle-weary Totters fan these days, while others make a meal out of beating League 1 and Championship opposition by fielding weakened teams (then having the gall to complain about fixture congestion), we seem to be on an impromptu winter break of sorts, with our next fixture not until 6/3 after tonight’s Beano to the stag-capital of the country. There are a number of clubs who'd love a break like this, and Harry for one has been crowing about the need to get a few more bodies ready to be thrown once more into the breach. At the risk of repeating myself, a win against a team on the slide, with our rivals playing twice more before we take on Wolves, is what you might deem a key game. A win keeps the club buoyant and on the crest of the wave taking us beyond Milan and into the quarters of the CL, while a defeat leaves us 12 long days away from a potential Premier League redemption.

An important game, I guess, would be the main bullet point of this presentation…

As the injury whack-a-mole continues around the Lodge, VdV is now out, but Mods has popped back up to take his place. With Charlie out, the silence surrounding Hutton’s MIA has become deafening, so there’s talk of Gallas moving to RB, with Bassong in his stead. At the moment, Defoe couldn’t score in Faces, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Krankie and Jenas coming in for Peanut and Sandro, with Crouchy continuing to fly solo up top again.

At the risk of sounding like another BBC gas bag, there has been a lot to admire about Blackpool this season, with Olly showing he's more than just a sound byte. I was sort of dreading him being thrust onto our goggle boxes at first; a tell-it-like-it is type with the capacity to amuse and annoy in equal measure. Like Neil Warnock but less tragic, just before the wig goes on, drag queeney looking. Aside from the odd miss-timed rant and threat of early season over-exposure, he's mostly been great value. I also gained a lot more respect for him after reading that on leaving QPR (I think), he took a break from the game and travelled around several European clubs, sitting back and watching the training methods they employed, which lead him to completely change his management philosophy: out with the long-ball and in with speed, possession and attacking intent.


Blackpool are not Blackburn or Sunderland. The theory suggests that a war of attrition will be the furthest thing from anyone's mind when the two teams take to the field, and that a team with a we'll-score-one-more-than-you attitude are perfect opposition for our likely lads, especially given our recent pomp. Prediction? Let's go for a 1-3. An early goal would be lush.