Piss poor result. With respect ‘pool aren’t anything special in this league … and they’ve come to us and walked away with all three points. We don’t have the forward the team deserves and desperately needs. We don’t seem to be using the subs for fresh legs as we should/could. Dykes isn’t going to make this a career season; he doesn’t have the fight to show he wants it bad enough. Armstrong deserves more opportunity for me.
Blackpool a proper bottom half side, we were shyte tonight. Dykes is a f*cking cart horse who should be sent to the glue factory. All that possession and we barely threatened. Seems like this is going to be a long hard season...
Mmm..... Blackpool are a typical, difficult to play against Championship side. Big, niggly and well organised. As usual, the ref let them get away with murder. We were all over them 2nd half, but our crossing was awful and we looked pretty toothless. Having said that, we still had enough chances to not lose. Armstrong was superb when he came on and was possibly just stretching too much for that late header. Dykes is, quite simply, a very poor player. League one standard at best. Armstrong must start. Just let him go!! A little concerned at how open we were, with our full backs pushed so high. I suppose it's ok if you take your chances. Certainly attacking! I still want to see what we look like when our strongest 11 have started a few.
Yep, I'm yet to see any tactical genius, playing style or results that aren't any different from Warbutons reign. Still plenty of time to make his case but so far, nothing for me.
100% bet Armstrong starts on Saturday. Beale will know the fans are turning already. All incredibly frustrating but I still think with patience this team and manager will come good. The striker situation is a massive worry though. Bonne has looked sparkier than Dykes but God knows what's going on with him. This is Dykes third season now, have we seen the best we're going to get from him?
Yes and as much as I like Armstrong I'm not sure he looks an out and out goalscorer either. Hope he gets the chance to prove me wrong.
Our best player, I think. Roberts and Armstrong are must starter's, both have infectious enthusiasm for the game.
I'd actually give Blackpool a bit of credit, they had a game plan, sat deep, smothered our midfield, broke quickly in numbers........ Once they scored that was it, sat even deeper and narrower and said, okay play through us and we failed miserably....... The only thing that takes away from that ws the ****ehousery, and the ref bought it hook, line and sinker....... 4 minutes my arse...... still if it had been 15 minutes we wouldn't have scored......
No where near our chance of the game. Not an easy chance on the stretch. Dykes squandered our chance (chances!) Of the game.
I think when he realises, has and plays our best team we will be decent I reckon we have a good best 11 I am hoping Armstrong can play through the middle. He does need a bit of time and as frustrating as it is, it is early season so coming on after 60 is helping him settle in
Officials were so poor tonight. I was looking down the line and the lino missed so much, and the ref let them get away with so many little fouls but blew every time it went the other way. We sat back and gave them so much time to get organised, and then so often hoofed it forward to Dykes who did less than my Granny would have done. She died a while ago. The chance he wasted in the first half was unforgivable and I would have shipped him off at half time. If he starts the next game I'll right this season off. He just makes our style dull to watch and wastes so many chances/loses possession so often. Overall though, as has been said before, we were too nice. They wasted so much time and we let them do it. I saw our players get in the refs face once all game. It should have been every few minutes. So disappointing and as others have said, if that is a sign of what's to come, it'll be a long season.
Moving the ball too slow all over the pitch - Roberts aside. Armstrong now has to start. He terrorised them when he came on and they were reduced to dragging him down.
Agreed. His first touch isn't brilliant. What a frustrating game. The ref was woeful but the authorities need to do something to stamp out the time wasting and fake injuries. Absolutely dreadful to watch and ruins the game for me. I don't enjoy it when we do it either, and we do. I don't want to pay £40 to watch anyone spent the whole game trying to wind down the clock.
Willock will cover up a few cracks and will create more clear cut openings, however if we don't have a striker who can put them away we'll still be unable to put teams away.
I feel there is a bit of pressure on Beale now. If he plays Dykes on Saturday and brings Armstrong on again at 75/80 minutes there will be a lot of questions. I think the fan base would rather see Armstrong tried for 60mins and make a choice to bring Bonne or Dykes on then if it’s felt right. We do need a new striker in before the deadline though - and I would hope our forwards coach will be pressing our board for a decision.
