Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

Last updated : 01 November 2005 By Tony Scholes


Surprisingly there was no sign of the likes of Danny Karbassiyoon or Duane Courtney as the Clarets lined up at the new look half a ground called Bloomfield Road and we had a side made up of ten youth players and one player from the Centre of Excellence.

It all started well for the Clarets, unbeaten in the Pontin’s League this season, when Marc Pugh got down the right and crossed to the far post for Ali Akbar to hammer us into the lead. We sat back and waited for the avalanche but almost from the restart Blackpool were level and a good goal it was too as first team striker John Murphy headed in a right wing cross.

Burnley took that all in their stride and could have gone back in front with a well struck shot from the CofE youngster Adam Kay only for the home keeper to save well. It had the makings of a good match but ten minutes of nonsense ended it as a contest.

With just eight minutes on the clock Blackpool took the lead with a goal that our keeper Mark Crossley will want to forget. A shot with no power at all rolled towards him but as he went down to collect the ball, it rolled through his legs and embarrassingly into the net.

Ali Akbar - scored our goal
We worked hard to try and get back into the game but within ten minutes the officials brought the contest to an end with two appalling decisions within the space of two minutes both involving Blackpool’s Sean Paterson.

Firstly, despite being at least five yards offside he was allowed to go through one-on-one against Crossley and he finished well to make it three, then a minute later he was onto the keeper again and went down in the box. It was a blatant dive but the referee incredibly pointed to the spot and then waved the red card at a clearly distraught keeper.

Marc Pugh went in goal, not a position he has played before we were told, and he was beaten from the spot for a fourth goal. A shot from ten yards increased the lead to five and it remained at that until half time.

Murphy, scorer of the first goal, and Scott Vernon were withdrawn at half time by the Seasiders who chose to bring on only one substitute in a show of fair play, they too realising just how ridiculous the decision was to send off Crossley.

The second half never lived up to the first half for incident but it was still not without controversy. The home side increased their lead further but then had a player sent off themselves when the referee deemed that Kevin Brown was the last man. Off he went and at this point Blackpool brought on a substitute for the previously withdrawn Murphy to keep it at ten a side, although the referee didn’t appear keen on them doing it.

Burnley hit the post and then all that was left was a 40 yard goal into an unguarded net after Pughy cleared a ball from the left back position straight to the Blackpool player.

It was an incredibly ninety minutes, our unbeaten record was well and truly brought to an end, but it really would have been so different but for the officials getting it horribly wrong twice in the space of a couple of minutes, there really is no excuse for them getting decisions so badly wrong.

The teams were,

Blackpool: Lee Jones, Jonathan Goulding, Gareth Evans, Tony Butler, Kevin Brown, Matt Shaw, Tommy Wright, James Foran (Scott Metcalfe), Scott Vernon (Matthew Kay), Sean Paterson, John Murphy (Cabba Bagdadi). Subs not used: Joe Abbott, Paul Parle.

Burnley: Mark Crossley, Rob Henry, Paul Casey, Connor Smith, Tom Blackler, Adam Kay, Dale Underwood (Cayne Hanley), Nicky Platt, Marc Pugh, Kyle Lafferty (Rob Turner), Ali Akbar (Jay Rodriguez), Sub not used: Dean Stott.