[Bispham Seasider]

What

Blackpool play host to Stoke City in a Football League Championship match.

When

Saturday 15 December at 3:00 P.M.

TV/Video

No coverage on Sky Sports other than the usual goals highlights which will appear at some point on Sky Sports and on ITV's The Championship programme.

Radio/Audio

This game will probably be covered by BBC Radio Lancashire, though not available online as they don't allow access to the station during match coverage. The official Tangerine World subscription site will have online radio coverage.

Build up!
Wes Hoolahan missed the 1-0 home defeat to Cardiff City on Tuesday with a recurrence of a back injury he sustained last season. As of Thursday it isn't clear whether or not Wes will be back in time for the Stoke match. Definitely out is midfielder Keith Southern who had a tendon operation last weekend and will be out of action for at least two months. Loan striker Bartosz Slusarski looks as though he could be back in action on Saturday and if so may well start the match.

Stoke City have had a good season so far and currently sit in 5th place, in a Play off spot on 34 points, with an away record of
Won: 4
Drawn: 4
Lost: 2
Goals for: 15
Goals against: 10

The odd thing is though that Blackpool are only 9 points behind Stoke, even though we are in 18th place in the Championship.

Senegalese international former Liverpool defender Salif Diao recently signed a new contract at the club having played for them on loan in the 2006-07 season.

Stoke City were founded in 1863 and former 'Pool legend Sir Stanley Matthews (after whom the 1963 FA Cup Final, which Blackpool won, beating Bolton Wanderers 4-3) also played for Stoke, his hometown club. Even though they were founded as far back as 1863, their major trophy only arrived in 1972 when they won the League Cup beating Chelsea 2-1.

They should bring a decent amount of support, and may well fill the East Stand (capacity 1,890).

[Cmack]

Pool will win 2-0.

[Bispham Seasider]

Update

Both Wes Hoolahan and Andy Morrell apparently passed fitness tests today and should be ok for tomorrows match. Gary Taylor-Fletcher also seems ok to play.

Hoolahan missed Tuesdays home defeat to Cardiff with a back problem. Morrell was on the subs bench despite being apparently on 70% fit and Taylor-Fletcher played despite having a sore hamstring. But all three are apparently now ok and ready to play tomorrow.

Simon Grayson has said that "Wes is continuing to respond well to treatment. Back problems can clear up straight away or go on for a while. There can be more to them than meets the eye, so our physio Phil Horner will keep an eye on him.

"But if he's not 100 per cent we won't risk him tomorrow because we have a lot of games coming up."

I hope he is 100% fit tomorrow!

[Dynamogal]

Originally Posted by Bispham Seasider

Update

Both Wes Hoolahan and Andy Morrell apparently passed fitness tests today and should be ok for tomorrows match. Gary Taylor-Fletcher also seems ok to play.

I hope he is 100% fit tomorrow!

I'm glad to hear Wes will be playing. The defense is solid but without Wes in the lineup, the offense can be a bit shaky. We need to score early and often!!

My prediction: 2-1 'pool

[schwabe13]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot..._1/7134184.stm

[Bispham Seasider]

Stoke proved today in my opinion why they are up near the top pushing for promotion to the Premier League. They are a strong physcial side, and a bloody big side too. Which is presumably why Larry decided to drop club captain Michael Jackson and bring in Ian Evatt. But even Evatt was dwarfed by some of the Stoke players. I think Stoke will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season and in the Play-Offs.

We weren't over-run by them, and we played better today overall I thought than Tuesdays defeat to Cardiff. I just think that we have what is a very good League One side struggling to compete at a higher level of football.

It seems it has to be third time lucky next Saturday at home to Coventry now!

We do though really need to bring in some new players in January, the club currently have apparently 4/5 foreign players (all with international experience apparently) on trial, so at least if any of them do end up signing then they will be ready and able to play from 1st January. One is a Latvian keeper, but we need at least one more striker, possibly two and definitely more midfielders. Slusarski is only on loan and will be going back to West Brom. Parker is presumably leaving in January for Swansea. Which leaves Andy Morrell - who seems to be struggling like mad this season, and whilst he was great for us in League One last season, he is not the long term solution. Scott Vernon doesn't even seem to get any time coming on as a sub. Only Ben Burgess out of the strikers seems to be doing ok this season. Todays goals were scored by a midfielder (Michael Flynn) and a defender (Shaun Barker).

Crowd today was given as 9,123 (I think). The club somehow though managed to mess up with the away fans allocation as there were at least 100 Stoke fans without seats, meaning some of their fans had to stand in the aisles and at the front. The Old Bill clearly also thought that some Stoke fans had managed to get tickets in the home stands as there were about 4/5 cops at each tunnel in the West Stand and the Kop. When Stokes first goal went in, there were two Stoke fans in the West who made the mistake of cheering and a very minor scuffle ensued, which resulted in the two Stoke fans being chucked out, but also and rather pathetic, a Blackpool fan whio had remonstated with the Stoke fans was also thrown out, despite him being there with a young child, which meant then that three 'Pool fans had to leave. The OB then simply vanished as there were no other Stoke fans in the home stands.

Bring on Coventry, we NEED a win and we NEED to get back to Fortress Bloomfield.