Blues 0 Blackpool 1 .. Ron's Match Report

Last updated : 22 September 2008 By Richard Barker

Gary Taylor-Fletcher's early strike in the second half was enough for a Blackpool team who thoroughly deserved their win.

Alex McLeish kept faith with the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation that had served him so well in the week at Bristol City, with just one enforced change to the side, with Stephen Kelly replacing the injured Stuart Parnaby.

To be honest, there's not a lot that can be said from a Blues point of view. I don't think you can criticise the effort, but the performance was abysmal. Paul Rachubka (or however you spell it) in the Blackpool goal barely had a save of note to make, and certainly never had to extend himself, even when Blues ended the game with James McFadden, Quincy, Kevin Phillips, Marcus Bent and Cameron Jerome all on the pitch.

The first half was pretty shocking for Blues, but Blackpool weren't a great deal better. You did hope that at half-time the riot act would be read to Blues, and that they'd come out firing. They didn't, however, and the first few minutes of the second half were a comedy of errors. Blackpool should have taken the lead moments before they did, as Blues' defence completely crumbled. When they did go 1-0 up, Taylor-Fletcher probably couldn't believe his luck as some woeful defending left him unmarked and he clipped the ball into the corner. Maik Taylor didn't even try and save it.

Blues inevitably had a lot of possession thereafter, and piled on the pressure, but without really creating a thing, and Blackpool continued to look the more dangerous side on the counter-attack. The most worrying thing for Blues is that Steve Kabba was head and shoulders above anyone else with his performance. When a journeyman striker like that is the best player on the pitch against you, well you deserve to lose. Blackpool have had footballing greats like Stanley Matthews and Wes Hoolahan playing for them in the past, and Blues were so poor that they made Kabba look like he was in the same kind of class.

It's difficult to analyse exactly where it all went wrong for Blues. With the exception of Bent, I don't think that there's a single player who played who you could say, "well, he did alright". Bent had a good game when he came on, but no one else did. Martin Taylor made mistake after mistake (his tried and tested "control the ball to an opponent when you're the last man" trick nearly let Blackpool in for 2-0 late on), and the likes of Phillips, Larsson, Jerome, Carsley, Murphy, etc, etc were all well below par. They all were, actually. It's not fair of me to name those names, because everyone else was equally bad. And don't get me started on Gary McSheffrey...

Blackpool were bright and well orangised, but they were still there for the taking. On paper there was only one result in this game, and the only issue to be decided was how many Blues would beat them by. The game was played out on the pitch though, and not on paper, and the result was one that was fully justified given the respective teams' performances.

A criticism that I'd have was that there seemed to be a panic by McLeish at half-time. The first half hadn't been good at all, but it was still 0-0 and Blues would have still fancied their chances of winning. However, McLeish changed the formation back to 4-4-2 at half-time, and the result was the all-over-the-shop display for the first few minutes after the break, as Blues' struggled to adapt back to their more accustomed formation and Blackpool capitalised. Perhaps it would have happened anyway, but I just felt that the formation had worked in the week, it had been a bit ineffective for 45 minutes here, but you need to stick with it and not panic straight away. Tinkering with it, and perhaps getting Bent on as the striker and moving Jerome wide instead of McSheffrey may have worked a little better, but the panicky change meant that Blues got caught on the hop, and the rest, as they say, is history.

People who've seen a lot of Blues this season won't actually have been surprised, because the standard of their football actually hasn't been as good as the league table or the points haul would suggest. It was probably only a matter of time before something like this happened, and happen it did. Perhaps it'll be the "kick up the backside" that Blues have needed a few times this season, and perhaps it'll focus everyone now. However, on the other hand, perhaps it's the first sign this season that Blues aren't the team that they'd like to think that they are, and the return to the Premier League may just look that little bit harder than some of the players (messrs McFadden and Larsson in particular) might have thought.