So after spending the day before watching Crewe Alexandra
destroy Hartlepool at Gresty Road today I was off to take another new league
ground in at the revamped Bloomfield Road where Blackpool would be entertaining
Morecambe.
Before the wife and I left Great Sankey and her family
behind we went for a morning out to Knutsford, where Karen's Cousin and Husband
used to have their coffee / sandwich shop for 12 years before selling it a few
months back. After wandering round Knutsford for an hour or so we headed back
to the house to collect our stuff and head off for the 3pm kick off
at Bloomfield Road.
The drive took an hour and after spending 10 minutes
looking for a parking space in the car park adjacent to the ground I headed off
to get tickets for the match. I called the club on the Thursday to order 2
tickets but was told by the chap on the phone that they had only sold 3,000
tickets so that buying a ticket on the day would not be a problem. Apart from a
lengthy queue getting a pair of tickets was easy and by 14.50 we were heading
into the ground. I just had time to stop and take a photo of the statue of Blackpool legend Jimmy Armfield which proudly sits on 1 corner of the ground.
I had been to the ground when on a family holiday as a
child but it was out of season and I only took photos of the outside. I was
also in Blackpool on a short holiday back in 93 and on that occasion they were
playing Wolves on a Friday night in a pre season friendly but having
spent the day in a pub with a group of Wolves fans I declined their offer of
going to the game with them, meaning I still hadn't ticked this one off!
Bloomfield Road has been dramatically developed in recent
years and now comprises of a hotel at one end of the ground with 3 sides
wrapped around into one with the stand opposite the main stand being the only
temporary stand remaining, this is the home to the away fans normally being halved
to also accommodate home supporters.
The new stands all look really good and are most defiantly
an improvement on the old stands but I do love nostalgia.
Morecambe being 2 leagues lower than last seasons
Championship play off losing finalists started with a full strength 11 as you
would expect against better opposition with Ian Holloway also putting out a
full strength 11 with only the injured Kevin Phillips absent. This meant that
the dangerous Gary Fletcher Taylor and Mattie Phillips alongside influential
midfield talisman Barry Ferguson would look to punish their lower league
opponents.
A crowd of over 6,000 had now arrived as Blackpool took
the game to Morecambe in the early exchanges with Taylor-Fletcher prodding and
probing. Then on 6 minutes the outcome of the game swung in favour of the
visiting side as Lewis Alessandra received the ball from outside the 18 yard
box and drove a low hard shot to the right of Gilks who though got down well
could not prevent the ball entering the net to the delight of the 800 or so
travelling Shrimps fans who went hysterical. With Morecambe in command on the scoreboard
they then started to soak up and out muscle a surprisingly inept home side even
with the vastly talented Thomas Ince on the right wing driving forward as often
as he could. Surely this boy will soon be going onto great things he really
does have the footballing world at he's feet.
The Morecambe fans were in great voice the home supporters
were very quiet as the fist half ended and their team trudged off to surely be given
a talking to but the ever amusing Ollie. Whatever he said obviously had an
effect as from the kick off they went at the visitors attempting to get a goal
back to kick on for a victory, this goal however never came and on 56 minutes from a breakaway Andrew Fleming
dummied keeper Matt Gilks from Andrew Wright's through ball and slotted home to
extend the Shrimpers advantage and really put the pressure of Ollies boys.
With the withdrawal of GTF and introduction of Barkhuizen
Blackpool pushed again to get themselves back into the game but were almost
punished again when ex Fleetwood man Richard Brodie who had been introduced as
a substitute went one on one with Gilks in a very similar position to one that Fleming
had been in to make it 2-0 only on this occasion to have he's effort saved.
From this moment on the Tangarines laid siege on the
Morecambe goal and from a double corner pulled one back through Alex Baptiste
on 77 minutes. Mattie Phillips then hit the post from outside the box after a
great run by Ince who was growing and growing in confidence as the visitors
defence struggled to contain him. corner after corner was launched into the
Morecambe box with Ian Evatt now playing as an additional striker but still the
equaliser would not come.
The 4th official held up the board indicating 5 minutes
additional time as Ince drove into the box only to be tripped by a Morecambe
defender but the referee waved away the protests. Then after a superb run
beating 4 Morecambe players Ince once again drove into the box from the left and
was blatantly tripped so blatant that most of the players stopped dead while
all of the Blackpool players screamed at the ref.....same result as a few
minutes previous....no penalty...absolute stonewall it there ever was one!
Barely a minute later the final whistle was blown
and the hosts were out of the Capital One cup at the first hurdle. An
enjoyable cup tier played at a decent pace with the visitors rightly leaving
victorious.
Back to the car and within half an hour we were well on
our back south down the M6. Two new league grounds ticked off in two days, two
very enjoyable cup games producing 8 goals and very different results. We
passed the Olympic Stadium as the closing ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics
was in full swing arriving home just before 10.30 pm to catch the
last 90 minutes on the TV.
Next Saturday sees the start of the Ryman League
season with Dulwich hosting Ramsgate at Champion Hill, the following Saturday I
have booked train tickets to Coventry to watch the sky blues host Bury in League
1 and my first visit to the Ricoh.
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