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A light breeze was blowing from left to right on the bottom pitch and we played the first half with this at our backs as we stroked the ball around, probing the Blackpool defences. Indeed the opening 15 minutes had our keeper Sergeant as a virtual spectator. Rob Turner had two good chances, the second of which brought a good save from the visiting keeper. Alex McDonald also found his route to goal blocked by a combination of defender and keeper after his release into the box following some intricate play.
Although it had been virtually one-way traffic we found ourselves a goal down on the half hour mark. Pool put a good passing move together and carved our defence wide open, leaving their striker one-on-one and he dinked it over the advancing Sergeant and into the back of the net.
We continued to press and Wes Fletcher had a header tipped onto the post by the keeper who was finding himself in the right place on every occasion. Shortly after the visitors turned defence swiftly into attack and Lynch was harshly adjudged to have brought down his man 30 yards from goal. The resultant free kick was curled onto the bar with Sergeant stranded, but bounced clear and the threat was nullified. Despite still being in the 1st half we then made a substitution as Lynch finally succumbed to the overnight illness he'd suffered and was replaced by Dan Brown.
We began the 2nd half in much the same fashion as we had the first and neat interplay between Thomas Bradley, Chaggar and Anderson allowed Anderson to jink into the box, but he chose power over precision with his finish and the keeper was once again equal to the task. We had more efforts on goal but we had begun to snatch and each and every shot found the keepers gloves.
On the hour mark Bradley could have counted himself a little fortunate to stay on the pitch as he picked up a booking for a poorly timed foul in the centre of the park. It was less 50/50 and more 70/30, with his slight hesitation perhaps causing his lateness in the tackle. The perceived injustice drove on our visitors and they put together another good move which saw them hit the bar once again.
But as the game progressed our dominance finally gained its reward. The Pool keeper made a fine flying save from McDonald but a minute later couldn't hold an Adam Kay blockbuster and the lurking Fletcher stooped to nod home at close range. Within five minutes we had made it 2-0 as Turner won a penalty which Kay converted. The incident didn't go down well with Blackpool and both centre-halves were booked, but it was a foul and gave us a deserved lead.
Pool could have had a spot-kick of their own but the ref chose to ignore the flagging of his linesman when he felt he'd spotted an infringement.
We rejigged our line-up a little with the introduction of Ben Hoskin in place of Fletcher, as Dean Stott moved into the centre of midfield and Kay moved up front. It was an inspired change as Hoskin broke up an attack and the resultant clearance upfield saw Turner chase a lost cause and beat the hesitant keeper to the ball. Turner was left with an open net which he rolled the ball home into after rounding the goalie.
As the clock ran down we saw the introduction of CoE striker Dominic Knowles who was given a five minute run out but the scoreline saw no further additions with the match ending 3-1.
Team :- Jon Sergeant, Dean Stott, Thomas Bradley, Nik Kudiersky, Chris Lynch (Dan Brown), Alex McDonald, Dil Chaggar (Dom Knowles), Adam Kay, Chris Anderson, Rob Turner, Wes Fletcher (Ben Hoskin). Not used :- Stef Ritchie.
