Blackpool (a) Saturday 16th November 2024

[XVK]

You must big a big supporter?

Is that like doing the do?

[corno_ntfc]

3pm kick off on Sky 412 is Stockport v Wrexham ( their obsession with Wrexham continues) other games should be on the red button.

Are these 3pm kos on Red, because of International break then? (different blackout rules)

[WasRambo]

Me and the boy are actually going to this. It's his penance for putting me in with the Gooners at Deepdale recently.

Tbf, they were a very friendly bunch. What it must be like eh, following a top team all over the country, hehe

[WasRambo]

Ps... £30 to watch that match.... £26 to watch us and Blackpool.... Go figure....

[Manwork04]

Ps... £30 to watch that match.... £26 to watch us and Blackpool.... Go figure....

It’s all glamour with you, Preston and now the jewel of the north, British Vegas.😉

[therealpattcobb]

I fcuking hate Wrexham, but most of all their scumbag captain McClean, what an utter low life, this c*** lives while decent people die, is there really a god?

Just a guess, but you will be wanting Thomas Tuchel to sing the national anthem from next year?

[Manwork04]

Just a guess, but you will be wanting Thomas Tuchel to sing the national anthem from next year?

Yes, but I wouldn’t be upset if he didn’t, the Royal family are close to a lot of hearts in Germany for some reason 😉

[GrangeParkCobbler]

Its a 350 mile round trip to the bright lights of Blackpool as we take on the Tangerines in our next league encounter.

They're a club steeped in history, with a second division championship under their belts in 1930, an FA Cup win in 1953 and perhaps most famously of all they won the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1971!! They have also won six playoff finals over the years, most recently in 2021 when they last gained promotion to the Championship. It was only to be one season at that level before relegation and this season sees them playing their second season in League 1 in this stint. League form over the past few years has been very up and down....they were in the Premier League as recently as 2011, but by 2016 they were in the fourth tier as financial and ownership issues were the main talking points down Bloomfield Road.

So this season they currently find themselves sitting in 18th place with an identical Win Draw Loss record to ourselves, our better goal difference sees us above them however. Its been an up and down season so far, an average start followed by six wins in eight games, that itself has now been followed by one win in nine, that win coming in the FA Cup at Gillingham. Only Exeter and Burton have been beaten at Blackpool in the league whilst Stockport and Barnsley have left with all three points. Draws against Wycombe, Lincoln and Wigan complete the set. They lost 3-0 at Orient in their last league game a week ago but did manage a penalty shootout win at Harrogate in the Trophy in midweek.

After a poor pre-season and a 3-0 defeat at Stockport, the Blackpool hierarchy decided to dispense with the services of Neil Critchley just two games into the League season. That bought an abrupt end to Critchleys second spell in charge of the club, and he was replaced by the vastly experienced Steve Bruce. New manager bounce certainly played a part as the Seasiders racked up five wins in six games before results took a turn for the worse. Saturday will see Bruce take charge of game number 1049 in his managerial career, a career which has seen him manage both Sheffield clubs, both Newcastle and Sunderland as well as both Birmingham and West Brom.

Kyle Joseph leads the scoring charts with six goals in an ever present 14 league games so far, he made a half million pound move from Wigan to Swansea a few years back but didn't start a league game for the Welsh side. Productive loan spells at Cheltenham and Oxford followed before Blackpool picked him up in the summer of 2023. Dom Ballard is on loan from Southampton, he had a decent spell at Reading last season scoring five in 12 but he's found goals harder to come by in the north-west with just one in 12 for Blackpool. Second top league scorer is actually defender James Husband who has three goals to his name.
Jordan Rhodes is on their books too, over 200 league goals for him in his career and he scored in midweek at Harrogate, CJ Hamilton is another threat for them with a couple of goals in the Trophy to go alongside a couple in the League too. Finally Ashley Fletcher is a former £6.5m pound man, a big money move saw him go from West Ham to Middlesbrough in 2017. Since then he's worn the colours of Sunderland, Watford, New York Red Bulls, Wigan and Sheffield Wednesday before ending up at Blackpool on a free in the summer. He scored on opening day at Crawley but has drawn a blank since then.

As OAP has already mentioned, one of their keepers this season is Richard O'Donnell who had a spell with us back in 2018. O'Donnell has taken over in recent games from Harry Tyrer who was dropped after the 5-1 defeat at Peterborough. O'Donnell had four seasons at Bradford before dropping down to play for Rochdale, but this season at the age of 36 he finds himself back in the league.

We didn't face Blackpool in a game until the famous 1965/66 season, we did claim one of our top flight wins against them before they won the return at the end of the season. Overall in all competitions we have now met 39 times with Blackpool on top 21 times to our 11.
Last season we picked up our first win at Bloomfield Road in over 20 years with a 2-1 win at the end of November, Bowie and Hoskins on the scoresheet in front of a Tuesday night crowd of 9,058. The Seasiders gained revenge later in the season winning at Sixfields, again on a Tuesday night by a single goal scored by Matthew Pennington. Marco Gabbiadini scored both goals in that 2-1 win back in 2002 and aside from that we have to go back to 1983 for our only other victory on the Blackpool grass so an average of one win every 20 years or so is not a good omen for the travelling hordes this weekend!

Its Alex Chilowicz in the middle for this game. He took charge of our opening day defeat at Bristol Rovers this season and has flashed 38 yellow and 2 red cards in 12 games. He came over from the MLS in December of last year and this will be the first time he has handled a Blackpool match.

COBBLERS NEWS: Brady says there are up to 15 players out or doubtful for the game with McGeehan missing out through suspension and McCarron the latest on the treatment table after picking up a knock on Tuesday night. Roberts, Sowerby and Wilson though are thought to be available after all three missed out on the trip to St Andrews last weekend.

[WasRambo]

My lad was our mascot in that 2002 game

Me, my mum and my two nieces got put in the family stand but got unceremoniously marched round to the away section at half time because someone complained about me celebrating when we scored.

Cold, wet horrible night as I remember but good result!

[Bingers]

Ps... £30 to watch that match.... £26 to watch us and Blackpool.... Go figure....

There is a simple answer here. Seeing The Mighty Cobblers win away is priceless. Consider £26 an absolute bargain.

[west stand oap]

In the worst case scenario that none of the injured are ready for this game we will only have 4 fit defenders. As Blackpool usually play a 442 formation I would think JB would switch to a back 4 instead of playing Hondermarck out of position at wing back. When we are out of possession our 2 front wide men can drop back to make it 451 and stifle the midfield making it difficult for them to play through us as it worked effectively particularly in the first half at Birmingham.

                                                                                                                Burge

                                                               Odimayo                     Eyoma                          Guthrie                  Guinness-Walker

                                                                                Fox                       Sowerby                        Chouchane

                                                               Pinnock                                                                                             Hoskins
                                                                                                              Roberts

Hopefully we will be pleasantly surprised by somebody on the injured list being available and also Fosu being able to tale some part in the game.

[606 Parklands_Cobbler]

The first thing I thought when I saw that 11 was it didn't look that bad. Maybe shows what a good squad Brady has put together.

[Melbourne Cobbler]

Thanks for the hardwork and research OAP/GPC. As always a very enjoyable read.

[TheScout]

Too add further context to our game at Blackpool FC tomorrow, the hosts will be without young forward Dom Ballard as he is away with the England Elite League Squad & may feature for them this evening against the Germans at Chesterfield. This game may come to soon for influential centre midfielder Ollie Norburn who is working his way back from an hamstring injury but could well fight out a starting berth with Ryan Finnigan alongside experienced Lee Evans.
One man I feel it would be remiss not to highlight is young 21 year old attacking midfielder Rob Apter who spent the last campaign on loan at Tranmere FC.
 He won the league 2 young player of the season in which he scored some great goals as well as assisting many times. Was only on the field for around 30 mins in the week against Harrogate where he claimed an assist.
He will operate from the right wing with CJ Hamilton on the opposite side. RA is predominantly left footed, can go either way but his pace & trickery may cause concerns.

[XVK]

Wrap up warm tomorrow, going to get colder this weekend

[itsme]

I think we'll get something from the game tomorrow

[Gustavo Palcrice]

It's not looking good.

[just.reading]

I’ve captained Pinnock in my EFL Fantasy team, got a good feeling for tomorrow

[itsme]

I've never selected a cobblers player don't isn't to jinx us

[Shoemender]

I've never selected a cobblers player don't isn't to jinx us

You what?