Tango’d

Andy Munro on a disappointing evening at St Andrews.

After a dismal game between two, quite frankly, dismal sides, Blues let two points slip due mainly to some awful finishing. I suppose with the football fare (or should that be ‘unfare’?) being currently served up, it was also no surprise that the attendance was a paltry 13,111 and, even then, they must have counted the ballboys, players and officials.

It was two points that we could ill afford to squander especially with Wolves registering a win but, right from the start, most Bluenoses knew it was going to be one of those ever frequently occurring days after just ten minutes.
Lee Clark had talked about Blues setting out their stall/coming out of the blocks fast and just about every footballing cliche although thankfully he didn’t resort to the one about everybody hurting. Early on,B lackpool could easily have built up a comfortable lead before gradually descending to our level. Credit then to Curtis Davies for a great goalscoring header especially as he was having a defensive nightmare alongside an unusually uncertain Robbo. In fact, the only bright spot defensively, despite the opposition Ince factor, were the two fullbacks who emerged with a semblance of credit.

In midfield we lacked creativity and although Reilly had a decent game, the centre was crying out for somebody creative alongside(Darren Ambrose or Keith Fahy anybody?). Burke had a reasonable game despite being surrounded by a posse of defenders every time he was on the ball whilst the new Fergie was one of the highlights with his willing running and crossing. Up front, it was business as usual as Ziggy plodded around sticking his foot in on both ball and shin, still winning most of his headers with not a soul in sight to take advantage of those flick=ons. Lovengrans also worked earnestly in his one paced way but, apart from a shot that unluckily hit the inside of the post, he never looked particularly menacing.

Of course the inevitable happened, and Blackpool drew level after a spell of pressure. In response, we brought on Wes Thomas. In a nanosecond, he illustrated that his ‘pace and power’ billing should see a visit to BCFC from the city council’s Trading Standards team. However there was still time for Ziggy to predictably miss a sitter and hold his head in his hands alongside the entire Tilton Road. There was then an even worse miss by the normally reliable Wade Elliott. Apparently this latter faux pas was due to an unhelpful bobble on a worn grass pitch in March…now that’s a surprise!

Can things get any worse? I wouldn’t bet against it. An ordinary team, a manager who couldn’t motivate the Motivator and a China Crisis. Only at the Blues.

Food for thought

• Who should be next up in the middle of midfield? Fahy, Ambrose or Morrison?
• Is Wes Thomas a turkey of Bernard Matthews proportions?
• What is Nathan Redmond thinking at the moment?

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