Blackpool vs Manchester City match thread, Sunday 17th October 2010

Blackpool vs Manchester City, Premier League
Sunday 17th October 2010, kick-off 4:00pm

This Sunday marks the club's first ever live home game in the Premier League, with the Sky Sports cameras coming to Bloomfield Road for their "Super Sunday" with coverage starting at 3:30pm.

And what a game for Sky Sports to pick to show on Sky Sports One, against the multi-rich Citeh.

Unfortunately, Ian Holloway will be serving a one match touchline ban following his disciplinary hearing for his verbal abuse of "referee" (if he can be called a referee) Mike Dean after the home defeat to Blackburn "Hoofball" Rovers. Strange that Dean was not charged with impersonating a referee. But no matter, Ollie will no doubt be sat up in the Directors Box with his missus and in full contact with his assistant Steve Thompson, who as a Blackpool lad will enjoy every minute I am sure of being in charge in front of the viewing public. A real honour for Thommo.

More news to follow.

 

Phil Dowd will take charge of the game.

The Staffordshire-born official is yet to oversee a Blackpool fixture this season. He did though referee the Championship Play-off semi-final first leg against Nottingham Forest at Bloomfield Road back in May.

 

Just before I leave for Bloomfield Road, I'm watching the Merseyside derby. Hilarious that Everton just took the lead against Liverpool through Tim Cahill - but from a typical run down the right wing and cross from young Seamus Coleman, who of course was superb for Blackpool on loan last season. And great to see him doing so well now.

Also, Sky Sports have it right. Two live games today, with the game at Everton the appetiser for the big game later at Bloomfield Road.... They are even using Bloomfield Road as their base today for pre-match, half-time and post-match coverage even for the game on now.

And in less than two hours it will be David vs Goliath, the paupers against the multi-millionares, and as many keep saying, the biggest mis-match in PL history. That didn't stop us beating Liverpool of course. And as Ian Holloway has said this week, it doesn't matter how much money you have, what car you have, the size of your home, or even how famous you are. What matters is those 90 minutes on the pitch, and the Blackpool players have no huge expectations, they just have a great comaradarie and the desire to fight not only for each other but for the club, the fans and the town.

Bring It On!!!

 

I left it until today to comment because I thought that maybe, just maybe, I might not still be angry, frustrated, annoyed, fed up etc. No chance.

What is it with PL officials?

Gary Taylor-Fletcher scores a perfectly good goal to give Blackpool the lead, after we had dominated the game. Yet it was given as offside by the refs assistant because he adjudged Elliot Grandin, who was very slightly offside, to have touched the ball, before GTF scored. Yet everyone and their aunt could see that Grandin did not touch the ball. Andy Gray on Sky Sports said the goal should have stood as did Jamie Redknapp post match. And today, former referee Dermot Gallagher (who was one of the most respected officials in England) said the goal should have been allowed and that it was an "error of judgement".

Carlos Tevez - a player I really admire and love to watch play - was clearly offside when he scored Citehs first goal. He was offside before the ball was crossed and he was offside when he scored. Again - Andy Gray and Jamie Redknapp both said the goal should not have stood. And the replay afterward showed how obvious it was that he was offside. Plus the other refs assistant was stood completely in line with Tevez, yet somehow managed to miss the FACT that it was offside.

Tevez again for his second goal. This time was not as clear cut but Tevez appeared to foul Ian Evatt before he scored. It could be argued that maybe this was not a foul, but again many neutrals thought it was.

The fact remains though that Blackpool for long periods outplayed a team that cost 70 times more, a team full of so called "world class" players, a team that one player earns more than the entire Blackpool team. We made them look ordinary for most of the match and it took highly dubious and quite frankly very poor officiating for Citeh to win the game.

However, whilst I hate losing, I would not swap supporting Blackpool with any of these "big" clubs. The atmosphere inside Bloomfield Road was again superb. A crowd of 16,100 created a far better atmosphere than the Theatre of Sleep at Old Trafford did on Saturday with 75,000 or whatever ManUre get. We have a manager too who cares about people and not just football + money. He wants his players not only to be decent footballers but also decent human beings. He cares about helping others. Post match he clearly was trying his best to "bite his lip" in his interview, yet he was obviously riled and even seemed upset.

Who would have thought that Blackpool fans would be complaining because we outplayed "the richest club in the world", that we should have at least got a draw and that we did outplay them. Certainly not back in 2000 when we were in the old 4th Division. Certainly not when we then got promoted to the 3rd tier. Certainly not when in 2006 Valeri Belokon came in as president proclaiming his desire for us to be in the PL within five years. Not even when after we got promoted up to the Championship after "29 years of hurt". Not even at the start of last season when we were considered to be relegation favourites yet again. Not even when we got in the play-offs and got promoted back up to the top flight for the first time since 1971. And definitely not when every single pundit, expert, sports reporter and their aunties said that we were the worst club to ever be promoted to the PL, that we would be bottom all season and probably not even reach 10 points. Yet here we are with virtually every neutral saying we should have won the game.

I love Blackpool Football Club!!!

 

Thanks for posting that! I saw his post-match interview with Sky Sports when they grabbed him only minutes after the final whistle and before he had chance to speak with referee Phil Dowd and he was quite rightly really angry, but also seemed upset. This interview is superb and I agree 100% with him. It is so easy what he says it is amazing that the football authorities just ignore it - the 4th official watching a monitor on a five second delay, they would easily have seen that Gary Taylor-Fletchers goal was onside and that Carlos Tevez was offside for his first goal. And no arguments, no complaints then because it is fact.

 

I forgot to say that Citehs 3rd goal was superb. David Silva what a way to score his first PL goal.