Seasiders Shackle Young Clarets

Steve Edwards - in at full back

The team was much changed from the game against Accrington. Goalkeeper Ben Woodhead returned from injury, with schoolboy Christian Thewliss dropping to the bench. The full backs were also rotated with Steve Edwards and Dean Overson coming in for Ed Williams and Curtis Woods. Dave Lynch was missing in the middle of the park due to his Republic of Ireland call up, and Joe McKee was sidelined with a thigh injury. There was also a bit of a who's who on the touchline with some of our staff joined by Blackburn Rovers academy coaches Wally Downes and Simon Ireland joining interested parents Paul Mullin, father of Burnley midfielder Alex, and former Villa star Ian Taylor whose son was in the Blackpool ranks.

There was a healthy crowd present as the match got underway, with the Clarets kicking from right to left. We were lined up with Joe Jackson ploughing a lone furrow up top and the midfield packed behind him. Perhaps it was a case of 'too many cooks' after five minutes when a mistake in midfield presented the visitors with the ball and a long pass was played up field. The centre halves were dissected and a forward ran clean through on goal, chased by Claret shirts and futile offside appeals. He made no mistake when one-on-one and slotted the ball past Woodhead.

We struggled to get a foothold for much of the 1^st half, despite playing some good football and retaining a lot of the possession. All too often we were let down by our play in the final third and Jackson was rarely given the ball in a threatening position. The final five minutes of the half gave us our best spell and we really looked to be gaining the upper hand but by the time the referee blew his whistle for the break we had still failed to work the keeper.

The 2^nd half saw us create more and we were unlucky a number of times. Both Tommy Taylor and Jackson worked the keeper with shots from the left hand side of the box, Steven Hewitt crashed a direct free kick against the bar from around 25 yards and Jackson also saw a long range effort tipped over by the keeper at full stretch. Blackpool also had their chances with Woodhead tipping a shot round the post, even though the referee opted to give a goal kick.

Our inability to make offensive changes from the bench though was a severe limiter for us. Pash only had three defenders and a keeper on the bench and when he made changes to try and shake things up it lead to a jumbled line-up with Williams in the centre of midfield and Woods as a flying winger.

Hopefully next week we will be closer to full strength and, with any luck, the ongoing international clearance issues can be sorted meaning we'd swell our squad by three players.

Team:- Ben Woodhead, Dean Overson, Steve Edwards, Alex Coleman, Tom Anderson, Tommy Taylor (Curtis Woods), Archie Love (Ed Williams), Steven Hewitt, Ross Wilson, Joe Jackson, Alex Mullin
Subs not used:- Christian Thewliss, Neil Yadolahi