Black(pool) Tuesday- Get Yer Bibles, Crosses and Shotgun

Have you seen this Spurs fan?

Would you Bloom(field Road)in’ Charlie Adam ‘n’ Eve it? The simplest away trip of the season against opposition taylor made for our style, and we’ve gawn an’ nawsed it right up.

A week is a long time in football, as the old paraphrased cliché goes. Last Wednesday morning we were all top of the world having dished out a footballing lesson to a European Leviathan in their own back garden (or at least showed them how to put in a bit of effort), and now we find ourselves open to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous goal line misfortune. To be a Champions League side again, or not to be? That is a question for further down the line, because last nights defeat needs to be put into perspective.

Of course, there are those who will dust off their ‘END IS NIGH’ sandwich board, grab their bell and pull their trousers down to their ankles and set about walking the streets telling all who will listen that ‘WE’VE F**KED IT’. The more sartorially aware ones can be identified by their ground breaking statements such as ‘The world is round’, ‘we need a striker’, ‘oxygen is important’ and ‘Arry has shown his tactical awareness once again’.

I’m no advocate of hiding behind statistics, but a look at the goals we conceded, and even a handful of the chances we created; reveal a lot more than the 3-1 score line. But it’s the score line that matters and there are no points for possession, shots on goal, corners or even ‘shots what would have gone in if it weren’t for defenders doing their jobs and getting in the way’. All in all, it was a freak score line, but given our profligacy, the likes of which I have to say I’ve never seen, a fair result.

On a tactical note, I find it strange that Gallas was moved from the middle to the right for MIA Hutton, and why Bassong wasn’t asked to go over there and do a job for 90 minutes. I realise the logic can’t be fully applied, but wasn’t right-back basically where you put the div kid in Sunday league footy… I should know, I’ve played it enough times myself. Would it have been such a huge stretch to ask a professional defender to do a job there, rather than disrupt a successful CB partnership, especially given that Blackpool like to go through the middle and don’t play with out-and-out wingers? As I’ve said before, Harry watches these lads in training every day, and while many may not see him as a tactical wizard, if there is one thing you cannot fault him on, it’s common sense when it comes to our set-up… which only makes the decision more puzzling.

So what now? A long and frustrating wait until the Premier League redemption we spoke of yesterday while we nervously wait on the outcome of the games involving the teams around us… so it’s as you were. We had a chance to go clear but we didn’t take it. If last season taught us anything, it’s that one poor result will not be terminal to our ambitions and that Tottenham will lose when expectation is thrust upon them, and win when the odds are stacked against us. It’s just the way we roll.

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.