S*** ground, no fans
Blackpool 0 Burnley 2, 13th April 1999
Hego
Lots of work to do, dreadful weather
forecast, loss of brownie points, 500 mile plus drive, half day holiday. Who cares, lets
follow the lads as they take on the tangerine s*** at what they laughingly call a football
ground. Not sure that my work colleagues feel that all the marbles are there at times like
this, and during the windy drive up to the seaside, I was beginning to agree with them.
Blackpool itself was however bathed in sunshine, a bit cold but OK for footy.
Met up with the Woody, Simon and eventually
Becko, prior to slumming it with the rest of the 1500 or so Clarets split between the open
Kop end and the paddock. For those of you who haven’t had the joy and pleasure of
attending a game at Bloomfield Road, let me briefly describe the stadium (sic). There are
two passable stands for the Blackpool fans, a covered standing paddock split half home and
half away fans, which is basic, and the equally basic and dangerous uncovered standing
Spion Kop end behind one goal, for away fans, two thirds of which is closed down for
safety reasons. The facilities for the fans are in keeping with the surroundings!. Even
the floodlights have a low wind safety limit, breach of which would have led to the game
being abandoned. Little or no response from the Blackpool public to the game, as usual. In
short, the usual s*** ground no fans claret ditty, was more than a little appropriate.
The Clarets team was pretty much as expected,
with Cookey back, Brassy in defence and Glen Little on the bench following his bout of flu
(?). The s*** were minus Aldridge, but otherwise full strength, including Junior Bent.
Blackpool are a fairly big robust side, apart from Bent, and with the lack of height in
the Clarets side apart from Davis, it was inevitable that we would struggle in the air, as
it indeed it turned out.
The game began with a rousing chorus of
‘Oyston sewing mailbags’ from the innumerable Clarets present. The reference is
of course to the s*** ex-Chairman who is currently residing in lodgings supplied by HMG.
First two s*** attacks were created by Bent
taking on Cowan and crossing to the far post, to be met by powerful but inaccurate
headers. This was very much the theme of the s*** attack in the first half, where Cowan
without too much support from Johnrose performed well. On 26 minutes however, the Clarets
took the lead with a candidate for goal of the season from Payton. A long clearance from
the Admirable was flicked on by Cooke to Padiham’s finest, who lob-volleyed the ball,
which Caig watched soar over his head into the corner of the net. On 36 minutes Watts was
deservedly booked for a vile leg breaking type challenge on Johnrose near the half way
line, which stifled a potential break with Cookey and Payton ready to go. A Cookey header
and a Mellon volley took the lads to half time nicely in front. Both of these two had
competed admirably, the latter of course playing against his old teammates in his home
town.
S*** started the stronger in the second half
until the entrance of Super Glen following an injury to Cowan. Immediate panic set in in
their defence, quite rightly. A Little through ball to Payton should have led to a score
before the man himself doubled the lead with a far post header from a Cook cross. A Davis
free header from a corner should have wound the game up before a Clarkson header brought a
great save from Admirable near the end of the game. Branch came on for Payton with 15
minutes to go, with what looked like a strain, leaving time for Carlisle, the other s***
centre back to be booked for yet another foul on Cookey.
End of game, three luscious points.
Only real downside was the real susceptibility
of the Clarets in the air, and the number of errors by Davis. I realise this is heresy,
but I did count six mistakes, either misplaced passes or caught in possession, which is
six more than normal for the legend. The jury is still out on Johnrose and Cook, and has
delivered their guilty verdict on Armstrong.
Home James, to the pleasantly soothing sounds of
Dr Feelgood with the thump, thump, thump of those three points taken from the s*** ringing
in my ears. It would have been nice to celebrate with a few gills afterwards with the
Woody, but what the hell.
Team: Crichton,
Pickering, Cowan (Little 50), Mellon, Davis, Brass, Armstrong, Cook, Cooke (Jepson 89),
Payton (Branch 75), Johnrose.
The home match
