Blackpool Seasiders Matchday thread-Must be today ?

Sshhhhhhhhh, for ducksake, man.

Before GC scarpered, we were in the playoff places, possibly even chasing the automatic placed runners-up spot (stop laughing). It was dull at the Meorial Ground, however, so lots of us weren't happy, and lots more weren't going.

Then GC left, and one of two things happened. Either (A) the GC ascent was fragile, overrated, and bound to collapse at some stage, so it collapsed; or (B) the GC ascent was down to GC (and stability) and without him (or without his stability) the side were weakened, so it collapsed. But it did collapse.

All hope of promotion extinguished, we stopped winning any games whatsoever, while opinion divided between much better football and much weaker football.

Now we have won a match (just one) this year, and realise there are at least three teams below us who are useless, the table indicates our season's over. We can't go up or down: thanks Uncle 'oddstracker' Eppers.

For the rest of this season, we should play only next season's players. There are only two objectives remaining, now. (A) to play and to coach the players and formation with which to challenge the top six of the third division next year. (B) to play exciting and appealing football to get as many Gasheads as possible to buy matchday tickets and next season's season tickets. Synthesis of (A) and (B) is BG's only job now, as far as I can see.

Entertain this season while building for next season. There's no point in boring to grind out results now.

Only 6.6K in attendance yesterday.  It looked less to me but they do add ST holders. Lots of gaps on all terraces and seats in south stand 

No you didn't, in your usual snide, arrogant way, you said ''Please give it a bloody rest''.

As I said at the time, if you want a forum where everybody agrees with you, go start one, otherwise you are just going to have to accept that people will have different thoughts to you.

Tell you what, how about this to allow us to move forward, I won't jump in and tell you to be quiet if you think that things are good, and you accept that I may sometimes think that things aren't quite so good.

For what it's worth, I still hope that Ben can turn this around, but so far I don't see any of those 'green shoots' that people keep mentioning. That's my honest opinion, I thought that was the entire purpose of this type of board, for people with different opinions to express them?

Got the impression that fourth said something in his earpiece.

Shows my ignorance then, I didn't even realise he was allowed to do that.

I think that we count all ST holders, whether they turn up or not, so probably a fair few less than that actually in the ground.

Will you be there, harry?

How do you know that?
Cannot find anything on our website or the bbc website regarding attendance.

My take on the game is slightly different from some on here. For anyone watching on iplayer or listening on the radio, you need to understand just how bad the conditions were and how a driving southerly wind meant Blackpool were dominant in the first half, but it was in Rovers favour in the second.

The other thng that needs to be understood is how game dynamics work. I accept that our defending was poor for their goal. The first ball should have been cleared properly and Little needed to put his body on the line to prevent the shot. But my point is that being 1:0 up and with the sending off, plus the wind meant that Blackpool decided to play 10 men behind the ball all half. As most people know this can be difficult to unlock if the condiitions are good, but with such a disruptive wind, crafted approach play is out of the window. We were frustrated until Alfie's wonder strike - although I was surprised that we didn't attempt more shots from distance against a good, but small keeper with the wind directly behind (Rodman did from out wide to be fair and caused trouble).

So why did Blackpool get the chances they did in the second half? I am a bit worried by the ease with which Blackpool were able to cut through, but with Rovers pushing forward to get an equaliser, we were always vulnerable to a break away.

Additionally, Rovers were playing with the tension of a team that hasn't won for a long time and being one down adds to the urgency, but led to mistakes. One thing that did infuriate me was how naive we were in not running the clock down once we were 2:1 up. Blackpool had wasted time all game. Feigning injury on half a dozen occasions. Telling ball boys not to retrieve the ball. Arguing every decision with the Ref (even getting him to change his mind with one decision because of this pressure!!!) it all runs the clock down. But we seem to be the nice guys, playing with some sort of Corinthian spirit. Into injury time, one goal up, don't quickly pass the ball back to the thrower so he can get it in play sooner, take as much time as the ref will allow to take every restart, go down with cramp, etc. etc. This is professional football not some garden tea party.

Given the conditions, and the pattern of the game, I was pretty pleased with the way we coped and the outcome. There will be the odd game where we will stroll to a comfortable victory, but overwhelmingly teams in this division will offer some threat as Blackpool did, for the reasons I have outlined.