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It was an interesting team selection with Harley getting the nod on the left side of midfield in place of the injured Mahon. Maybe the manager thought that Jones was still affected by his costly blunder in Reykjavik? Otherwise we set up as per Colchester, with new signing Alexander continuing in a centre midfield berth.
The Clarets started the game well, dominating possession without really threatening the Cricket Field end goal, Blackpool meanwhile were left to hit the channels for Morrell and Parker forcing our centre halves to concede a few corners.
At the end of this spell, the best move of the half saw Elliott cross for Gray to head just over. I was looking forward to Wade having a real go at Stephen Crainey, who I've seen produce some woeful displays at this level for Leeds and Southampton. This just did not materialise as our right hand side failed to function throughout the game, with Michael Duff's passing becoming increasingly sloppy as the match unfolded.
The game exploded into life with a few minutes to go to the half time whistle. Great work from Blake and Gray released McCann inside the box whose rising right footer crashed against the underside of the bar. Chris is obviously being encouraged to get into the box to support the strikers as he also went close with a header in the second half.
Right on half time Blackpool really should have gone in front, as for the first time Parker sprung the offside trap and advanced on Jensen. The excellent Carlisle got in a last gasp tackle which forced the forward wide, but he still got his shot away and the Beast produced a fine save in tipping it round the post.
So half time and all square and we had lost our early grip on proceedings. A bloke from Cambridge won a car at half time in one of the most puzzling draws I've witnessed, I'm not sure anyone knew what was going on, but still he didn't care as he drove off into the sunset.
Steve Jones appeared at the start of the second half for Jon Harley, who does not have the pace or ability to get past his man, so this was hopefully a statement of intent. There is no doubting Jones has the pace but all to often we fail to see the delivery, still he was soon to come up with the perfect answer.
With his back to goal he somehow let his defender have a bite at the ball, he then won a 50-50 and squirted the ball down the line to Robbie who was in acres. He advanced and picked out the onrushing Jones who cleverly side stepped a defender before shooting low with his left foot the ball going in via a deflection off Crainey. The huge bag of carrots in the away end were silenced.
The game then meandered along with Pool starting to come into it more as our ball retention deteriorated worryingly. Several times our excellent central defenders intercepted balls as they tried to slide balls down the sides.
However on 73 minutes Morrell cleverly forced Carlisle into a lunge in the box which resulted in a spot kick, it was difficult to see if contact had been made, but there didn't seem to be too many complaints from those in Claret. Hoolahan sent Beast the wrong way and it was game on. Blackpool had the initiative and continued to press, we had to change things, so on came Ade for Robbie who once again looked a class act, I would always keep him on personally.
Still slightly against the run of play, Ade collected a deep cross, held off his defender and swept an excellent finish past Rachubka. 5 mins to go and surely that was the decisive blow. Unfortunately though just as the 3 extra minutes were being announced on the tannoy, Beast advanced to collect a cross, that was best left to his centre halves, dropped it and the ball broke to Morrell who couldn't miss, to give the log flume operators behind the goal a second unexpected dose of excitement.
The final whistle was met with differing emotions from both sets of fans. Make no mistake having gone in front twice, we should have won this, but I don't begrudge Blackpool their point as they kept the ball better than us for the most part.
There were positives to take from this game, we have an excellent defence, I am very impressed with Stephen Jordan's passing and our central 2 are very solid. Our strikers will get goals. Caldwell, Jordan and Blake were the pick from this game.
How can we improve ? Usually fans are divided when asked this, not us I think. Graham Alexander for me to right back and we need a good passer of the ball in the middle of the park alongside McCann who will score goals this season, if he continues to make forward runs like yesterday.
ur lack of pace at the back ensures that we need to defend relatively deep, so there is a lot of space between back and front, thus it's vital to get in a player with a good range of passing in order to get the ball to Blake in space so he can do his damage at the top end. Once the manager addresses this we will be competitive at this level, it's still a good start for us and we should be optimistic.