Visiting family up north - just got in from the game.
Ground with 2 stands, bitter wind, bovril available, able to wander about and talk to the players you're that close (or abuse them at the end as quite a few did)...
Entertaining ranting old nutcase in front row of our lot - kept lobbing his clothes into our crowd, finally wouldn't give the ball back to Varney and got chucked out... all very weird!
Nice to 'change ends' as a fan at half-time, too!
As for the game, very hard winds to play in, Fortune a complete liability. Gray awful miss early doors, pretty useless.
Blackpool were impressive, wanted it more.
Halford looked different class again, plus looked interested unlike Basey. Cook was rusty but had a few good runs. Zhi worked hard but end product not too good.
Matty Holland tried, got a few tackles in, Iwelumo poor, but thought it was a good idea to get him on instead of Gray. Varney had a couple of great chances but well saved/tackled, seemed to lose confidence.
Ambrose, fair play for the goals, but in the second half it took me 20 mins to realise that he hadn't been substituted!!
IMO all these players should be sat down and shown the CAFC history video...to see the passion from fans and former players... tho I've been saying this for ages. I dunno - maybe they are.
Anyway, in fairness we could have had 6 goals, but we STILL lack a Parker-type figure to hold down the midfield (*yawn* I know, but it's getting ridicuous...)
Best chant: "5-3, but your still northern...."!!!
I think it's best to stick to at least stick to that "2 year plan" :-p
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Comments
You say that you want Pardew to tell it how it is, then when he criticises his players, you say he should be blaming himself? I'm not sure Pardew can be blamed for us conceding 5, unless he was playing at the back today. He's not likely to come out and say all the players he has signed are crap while they're still at the club, and still might be needed is he?
Iwelumo was brought to the club after a successful year last year in this league, and Gray has a good record in this league - to me when they happened, they were good signings, even if we paid over the odds for Gray. Mcleod is a young striker who was top scorer in league 2, that hasn't worked out, because sometimes that happens. Forlan and Veron didn't work out at Man Utd, does that make Ferguson a bad manager?
Iwelumo and Gray both have experience and a good record at this level. Earlier in the season, we couldn't see a team without Iwelumo in it, he was battling for the team despite injuries, and scoring crucial goals. Now he's stopped scoring, and had a run out of the team, with 20 minutes here and there, people have started saying "told you so" and that he's always been rubbish etc etc.
Gray has scored goals in this league before, and in my opinion, will do so again. He said when he signed that his goals come in patches, and so far, they haven't come, but in the games I've seen, he's looked good at holding the ball up. This season we haven't had a striker who will score 30 goals, but we have had strikers who should all be capable of scoring 10+. But we only realised this once these players had been bought, it could have been that Mcleod and Iwelumo struck up a partnership with each player scoring 25 goals.
Yes we have gone backwards in 14 months, but thats usually what happens when you get relegated. We lost players we couldn't afford to keep. Yes in that 14 months, the board have made mistakes, and yes Pardew has made mistakes. Sadly, that happens in football, its just a shame that football now being what it is, a mistake can cost us millions of pounds and can undo 10 years hard work.
If Pardew doesn't do it after two years, then slate him, but if he has a two year plan to work to, its unlikely another manager can do it in one, because of the upheaval needed.
In reference to Pardew telling it how it is, I was under the impression you were fed up of saying him saying it was down to the referee, being outmuscled etc, and so I thought him criticising his players was not doing this. Apologies if I've read this wrong.
Agree 100%.