Blackpool and Walsall kick off year with big wins

Lewis Nuttall

Games at this level between Blackpool and Preston in recent years have invariably ended in wins for Preston, but not this season. Blackpool are on a staggering run now and it was no contest on Saturday as they recorded a massive 6-1 win against their closest rivals.

That result, on current form, didn't come as a surprise, but Walsall's win over Rochdale was very much a shock. They started the day level in the league with Walsall above Rochdale on goal difference. But Walsall swept away any Rochdale threat to win 5-1 and go above Oldham, whose game was called off, into second place.

There were just two of the remaining five games played. Fleetwood beat Wigan and down at the bottom there was as victory for Wrexham against Shrewsbury that saw them swap places in the league just above bottom club Morecambe.

The weather put paid to the three other games. They were Macclesfield v Oldham and Port Vale v Tranmere as well as our home game against Carlisle.

Sadly there was no attempt by our club to communicate the postponement of our game and that led to several regular supporters making the trip to Gawthorpe when the game had already been called off.

That means we wait until next Saturday for our first game of 2014 with a trip to face Morecambe, and those fixtures see Walsall and Rochdale again meeting, giving Rochdale an early opportunity to make amends.

Last week's results, this week's fixtures, Burnley's goalscorers and the current league table can all be found below.

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS

Saturday 11th January
BLACKPOOL 6 PRESTON 1
BURNLEY v CARLISLE - match postponed
FLEETWOOD 1 WIGAN 0
MACCLESFIELD v OLDHAM - match postponed
PORT VALE v TRANMERE - match postponed
WALSALL 5 ROCHDALE 1
WREXHAM 3 SHREWSBURY 2

THIS WEEK'S FIXTURES

Saturday 18th January
BURY v FLEETWOOD
CARLISLE v BLACKPOOL
MORECAMBE v BURNLEY
OLDHAM v WREXHAM
ROCHDALE v WALSALL
WIGAN v ACCRINGTON

BURNLEY'S GOALSCORERS (LEAGUE AND CUP)

7: NTUMBA MASSANKA
5: BRAD JACKSON
3: KHIUS METZ
2: LUKE DALY, JAMIE FROST, CHRISTIAN HILL, CALLUM RICHARDSON, ALEX WHITMORE
1: WAQAS AZAM, EVAN GALVIN, NATHAN LOWE, KEVIN LY

CURRENT LEAGUE TABLE