[Bispham Seasider]

Pre-season matches start this Saturday at Fleetwood Town where there is a reduced capacity of 1,500. Last season this now annual fixture attracted about 2,500+ so should be a sell out for Fleetwood.

On Sunday the squad fly out to Latvia for a shorter visit than the last two years, where they play two matches in two days against two Virsliga clubs. They then fly back to England and play Welsh club Wrexham, who were relegated out of the Football League last season and will play in the Conferene National in the 2008-09 season. After that there is another ten days where the club were supposedly going to Northern Ireland to play in a mini-tournament but there has been no news about that for quite a while now so I can only presume that trip is off. Then the only pre-season match at Bloomfield Road is the visit of Scottish Premier League club St.Mirren by which time hopefully there will be the start of the South Stand arising! And then on 2nd August a trip to League One club Tranmere Rovers in Birkenhead.

Fixtures -

Saturday 12th July - Fleetwood Town
Monday 14th July - FK Jurmula
Tuesday 15th July - Skonto FC
Saturday 19th July - Wrexham
Tuesday 29th July - St. Mirren
Saturday 2nd August - Tranmere Rovers

[Dynamogal]

Will any of these be broadcast (radio) via the internet?

[Bispham Seasider]

I doubt it really with them being pre-season games.

The Fleetwood match will be covered by local radio but only with reports from the match every now and then. The two games in Latvia, there might be (if we are lucky) a match tracker on the Blackpool Gazette website! If I find out anything though I will post it.

Seems like there will be a few 'Pool fans in Latvia. Last year there were about 25 who went out. This year it seems there will be at least 50.

[Dynamogal]

Originally Posted by Bispham Seasider

I doubt it really with them being pre-season games.

The Fleetwood match will be covered by local radio but only with reports from the match every now and then. The two games in Latvia, there might be (if we are lucky) a match tracker on the Blackpool Gazette website! If I find out anything though I will post it.

Seems like there will be a few 'Pool fans in Latvia. Last year there were about 25 who went out. This year it seems there will be at least 50.

Are you going? If you do, post some pictures!

[Bispham Seasider]

I wish! Does seem though likely there are quite a few more going this season.

The Latvian football season is ongoing as it is run through the summer months.

The first match in Latvia is on Monday evening (I think they are two hours ahead of the UK) against FK Jurmala in the seaside resort of Jurmala, which is not far from Riga, at the 5,000 capacity Slokas stadion which is apparently like an atheltics stadium with a track round the pitch.

FK Jurmala were only founded in 2003. In their first season in the second tier of Latvian football, they finished in first place and so were promoted to the Virsliga the top flight in Latvia.

Goalkeeper Pavels Steinbors who spent part of last season on loan at Blackpool from Jurmala is now back with them and may well play.

The second match is on Tuesday evening against Skonto FC, who are one of the main clubs in Latvia and who beat Blackpool 4-0 (or could have been 4-1?) last year when they used their reserve team in the 1st half and only used their 1st team in the 2nd half! The match also saw Ian Evatt sent off, and the ref agreeing to allow Blackpool to replace him which they did bringing on Kaspars Gorkss!! Having a player sent off in a pre-season friendly is pretty stupid but also perhaps shows that both clubs took the game seriously and no doubt the Blackpool players will want to make amends for last years result. Their most famous current player is striker Marians Pahars who played for Southampton from 199 to 2006 and who has made about 70 international appearances for Latvia.

Founded in 1991, Skonto won the Latvian championship 14 seasons in a row up to 2004, and in 2005 finished in second place.

The match will take place at the 10,000 capacity Skonto stadion in Riga, which is also home to the Latvia national team.

[Bispham Seasider]

Fleetwood vs Blackpool

Blackpool line up

Matthew Gilks
Shaun Barker
Joe Martin
Keith Southern
Ashton Bayliss
Marlon Broomes
Michael D'Agostino
Stephen McPhee
David Fox
Ben Burgess
A Triallist

Blackpool went 1-0 up in the third minute

[Bispham Seasider]

Now 2-0. Ben Burgess scoring the 'Pools second goal. Still no idea who scored the first goal though.

[Bispham Seasider]

Half time score Fleetwood Town 0 Blackpool 2

Presumably there will be a number of substitutions come the second half.

[Bispham Seasider]

Jamie Milligan scored a penalty for Fleetwood to make the score 1-2.

[Bispham Seasider]

The attendance is being reported on Fleetwood Towns Cod Army message board as being 1,462.

That is a lot less than in the last two seasons. Pretty sure there was about 2,500 there last season and over 3,000 the year before when I last went to this fixture. But Fleetwood did announce it would be restricted to 1,500 today because of buliding work at their Highbury Avenue ground. They are building two new stands.