[theo_luddite]

Town's 10 Man Army Stadium
Under Leaden Skys
Amongst the Dark Satanic Mills
HD1 6PG

Kick-off 15:00 UK Time
Saturday 07/02/26

Images are either my own creations, licensed to me free of royaltes, or obtained from WIKI and CC and are available for "Fair Use" or credited accordingly.

Blackpool head east from the wet and windy Fylde coast and over the hill to Town for Saturday's match in wet and windy Yorkshire. It's a normal 3pm kick-off for a change. Town head into this on the back of 3 wins on the spin since Liam Manning took over from Lee Grant. Ian Evatt took over from Steve Bruce at Blackpool in October after Brucey couldn't get them out of the bottom 4. Our 3rd game on the bounce where the oppo's have also changed their head coach/manager during the season.

On the tellybox

HTTV and dodgy sticks (allegedly) for this one.

Latest news

Check the Innies and Outies section for all the January Sales and Deadline Day news.

As Snoots reported on his thread, after throwing us all a curve ball with his AI generated post, he'll learn eventually, Swindon have been kicked out of the EFL Trophy for fielding ineligible players and fined £40,000, half of which has been suspended should they pull the stunt again. I think the Squires 'toon might have swung it. Squires is a Swindon fan if you hadn't noticed.

Ryan Ledson got the Player of the Month award for scoring a goal. Funny how that works. Common sense prevails as Marcus Harness (2 goals, 2 assists) is nominated for the EFL League One Player of the Month. He's up against Adam Reach - Lincoln, Brendan Galloway - Plymouth, David McGoldrick - Barnsley, Kyle Wootton - Stockport County, Kyrell Lisbie - Peterborough United.

Ridiculous Olympic Rumour of the Week

Some ski jumpers have been allegedly injecting themselves in a certain area of their bodies to make them last longer when they are having a jump. Ooo'd a thunk, eh?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/czej70jyg4eo
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...ed-by-wada
Isn't that why little blue pills were invented?

Given the German newspaper Bild, that first reported this, is their equivalent of the UK "The Sun" or "Daily Star", I suggest taking it with a pinch of salt, or whatever else you put down to kill slugs.

Now, if "increasing your (cough) surface area" to increase wind resistance is the key to staying in the air longer, why don't they just turn their 6 packs into kegs by downing as much beer, pretzels and potato or pasta based meals as possible? It's got to be less painful than a little prick in your (cough, cough) ... moving on to the next story.


Out Injured/Suspended/Isolating

These next bits are borrowed from a certain Mr. Chicken's WAT email with some editing and typo's fixed by me.

Bojan Radulovic has been ruled out for eight weeks with the hamstring injury he suffered against Luton last week.

Joe Low has also been ruled out for a similar amount of time with the calf injury that forced him off against Peterborough at the weekend.

Alfie May still has another three league games to go on his four-match suspension but is eligible to face Doncaster on Tuesday.

Roughan is the closest of the three to making a return and may be in contention against Doncaster in the Trophy on Tuesday night, with Evans expected back a week or so later.

Back training but not oven ready/Back in the frame

New arrival Ryan Hardie is still recovering from a knee injury he picked up for Wrexham in December but is expected to be fit and available in the next 7-10 days.

Sean Roughan, Antony Evans and Jack Whatmough are all in training in at least some capacity as they work their way back from their respective injuries.

Last time out

I might have mentioned Town won again. Some said (including Radio Local) that it was the first time a new manager for Town had won their first 3 games since Noah sailed his Ark over these wonderful Isles. Others pointed out it's "complete bollocks" as last season Town also won their first 3 League games (plus an EFL Cup game) under Duff Duff.

After playing Pish Posh off the park for an hour and taking a 0:2 lead, and keeping 11 men on the pitch for 90 minutes for a change, Town relaxed and let Pish Posh equalise with 5 minutes to go. Well, we wouldn't be Town otherwise would we? Fortunately we went back up the other end and young Mr. Humphreys found himself free in the box to score the winner.



Blackpool on the other hand aren't having such a Happy New Year and continued their return to early season form with a 1:0 defeat at Luton.



It was another day of most of the top clubs winning again, though Cardiff only came away from Burton with 1 more point than we did the other week. Lincoln only needed 1 to win at Wigan which helped to keep the pair of them clear of the chasing 4 behind them. Bolton did the same at The Wombles, Stockport beat Plymouth 2:1 and Bradfords win in The Yorksha League match against Donny kept them in 5th. Luton were the only winners just below us and moved back up to 7th.



Port Vale scored in the 2nd minute and clung on for an unlikely win at Orient. Northampton lost at home to Reading to drop to 2nd bottom, Burton's draw dropped them below the trap door despite taking 15 of their 31 points so far off the top 8 sides. A big win (0:4) for Rotherham at Exeter moved them closer to the trap door. Doncaster's defeat left them hanging, but with the bottom half of the division not much more than a win or a defeat from heading up and down like a kid on a back garden trampoline, anything could happen.

A bunch of midweek catch-up fixtures featuring mostly bottom feeders shuffled things around down there a bit more.
Port Vale lost again to The Wombles, Northampton picked up a point at Barnsley and Burton, went for another Burton against Donny and found themselves dropping another place into the mire while Donny suddenly zoomed almost into mid-table mediocrity.



Table



After finishing in mid-table mediocrity under Brucie last season, Blackpool were hopeful of another tilt at promotion this season under Brucie. That didn't exactly go to plan as only 2 wins, 2 draws and 8 defeats saw them firmly anchored in the bottom 4. The first of those wins was 3:2 with 10 men against Town, also our first defeat, and Barnsley in September. By this time Brucie was sharing fish and chips with the seagulls on the prom. The next 6 games saw 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats, including a defeat at Bradford.

And then December came. An unbeaten run with 4 wins and one draw finally hauled them clear of the bottom 4. This included a 0:3 win against Rotherham and a 1:0 win against Doncaster.

They then went almost fully "Dry January" as they lost 5 and won 1, including another defeat against Bradford. Their worst defeat of the season was New Year's Day at Port Vale (5:1). Must have been on the draught champagne in Yates's Wine Lodge* on New Years Eve. The one win was at home to Northampton.

All in all, Blackpool v Yorksha stands at W4, L2.

*The original and best Yates's Wine Lodge was in Blackpool. It sold ale at prices that would make Mr. Wetheringspoon blanche and advertised that they sold champagne on draught. Possibly they didn't, though they stocked it in bottles, but you could get away with it in those days to some extent. Sadly now gone as the building deteriorated to the point it was demolished last year. There are plans afoot to rebuild it.

It wasn't the first time it had to close for a while ....

https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-moti...eaths%20of

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/afdcc33e6...&crop=none

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...e-pub-1977

Musical Interlude

As requested by Snoots in the away thread ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYm7oW65HZE

I try to accomodate all reasonable requests

Yes I know this is kind of a repeat, but a great intro ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH11CPDXzr4

and finally at least one half of this pair

https://youtu.be/8fv8IqyqEjU?si=b2ydLUDxc07Lx5Cs


The Sack Race

As sure as eggs are eggs and that Town will sack at least one manager per season, you won't be in the least bit surprised to hear that Watford are now looking for their 3rd of the season. Javi Gracia threw his cards in (again) on 1st February, good of him to hang around for January when he could have had a positive effect having been appointed for the 2nd time back in October. Valerien Ismael parted company with Blackburn the following day as their chicken plucking owners Venky's decided he wasn't going to lay any golden eggs.

Jim Bentley has moved in at Morecambe to bring an end to the "We Sikh 'em here, We Sikh 'em there' start to the new owners' daft, sorry, ambitious idea.

Outs

2 February: Valerien Ismael [Blackburn]
1 February: Javi Gracia [Watford]
30 January: Ashvir Singh Johal [Morecambe Town]
28 January: Michael Appleton [Shrewsbury Town]
25 January: Marti Cifuentes [Leicester City]
25 January: Pete Wild [Fleetwood Town]

Ins

1 February: Jim Bentley [Morecambe]
29 January: Gavin Cowan [Shrewsbury Town]

Innies and Outies

Also documented elsewhere, in one of Snoot's prediction threads.

Town Ins
Town sprung a few surprises in the January Sales, though I don't doubt that some have left that might have still been here if Lee hadn't been Grant(ed) 2 more weeks of mayhem (at least) than he probably should have been.

Mumba was the big expense and looks promising, but you wouldn't put him in the Castledine class just yet.



Town Outs
Some oddballs here. Wiles I won't miss. He was only occasionally the bloke we thought we got from Rotherham and he's gone to play for his former manager at MK Dons. We've sent Chapman out on loan, Goodman back to Palace and brought 2 more keepers in to replace them. Must make sense to someone.

Kane went to Plymouth on loan, whether he was part of the deal to bring Mumba in, who knows? Roosken is the latest of 3 Town players to go to Oxford, though he is on loan, not a transfer. Who knew we would become their feeder club? Castledine got recalled and sold to Boro, possibly the only deal we had no real say in but it was while Grant was here. Would he have stayed if Grant and his wacky ideas hadn't? Doubtful but possible in my opinion.

Taylor went on loan to Wigan, also due in part to Grant being here, Bojangles got injured and suddenly we need Hardie and Wales to cover up front. Zippy Redmond also went back to Villa having been injured for ages. Probably the least surprising move apart from Goodman. Apparently he's still with their U21's while Goodman has rocked up at Barnsley. Maybe he had a 12 month lease on his rental accomodation?



Blackpool Ins
Blackpool in The January Sales bought keeper Peacock-Farrell on a full from Brum, after having him on loan for the first half of the season, possibly for a few sticks of rock with a few whelks and cod and chips all round thrown in. Mushy peas? No problem. Clarkson has signed from Aberdeen for a Kiss Me Kwik hat and a bunch came in on loan. No. Not that Clarkson. He's still in the Cotswolds pretending to be a farmer and a pub landlord.



Blackpool Outs
Other than Lee Evans, who went to Bradford for a round of curries and a few chapatis, all were loanees that went back, though Peacock-Farrell got his knicker elastic stuck in the door and is still there.



Never had him down as a footballer. Curries?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GD1J87KbBi8

Who's banging 'em in

Not one of Town's top 5 scorers is either fit, allowed to play because of a ban, or still with the club.



Ashley Fletcher is far and away their leading scorer.



They can't all win

Unusual kick-off times as EFL clubs pay attention to the vital first hour when First Aid can help someone survive who is suddenly taken ill. Over the weekend of 5 –9 February, all 36 EFL matches have been scheduled to kick -off one minute later than originally planned to highlight a crucial message: when someone suffers a cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces their chance of survival by up to 10%.

There's only 4 points between Bolton and Town while there's 6 between Lincoln(2) and Bolton(4) and Town(6) and Luton(7).

Cardiff head up to Yorkshire to play Rotherham, Lincoln head in the opposite direction to play Plymouth. Bolton are home to Barnsley, Smogport are home Orient in games you'd expect them both to win. Bradford go to Luton so they can't both win and you should know where Town are.



Down amongst the deadmen, Port Vale play Burton, in what is more of a 6 pointer for the latter than Vale, Northampton are home to fast fading Stevenage, whose run at the Play-off places seems to be disappearing by the week. Rotherham you've heard about and new trap door dwellers Wigan are at Pish Posh.

We've played 'em before

We're 'levels for devils' in the Head2Head in the league games.though Blackpool have the upper hand in the most very recent games.



Next up?

Donny in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday then we're off to Stevenage for another early kick-off next Saturday.

Pressers

Manning and Kasumu are given a light grilling on the Town website

https://youtu.be/JZuZM2OjqA0

There's a version of the real presser on Mr. Chickens website if it works for you

The views from The Top of The Tower

https://www.blackpoolfc.co.uk/videos/d62...344f9b5f53

[jjamez]

Another game that I will be watching online, could have gone but got stuff on beforehand

[theo_luddite]

Liam Manning names three changes
Josh Feeney returns at the back
Lynden Gooch recalled from start
Cameron Humphreys back in midfield
Joe Low (calf) ruled out

22. Lee Nicholls
3. Murray Wallace
4. Ryan Ledson ©
7. Lynden Gooch
8. Cameron Humphreys
10. Marcus Harness
12. Radinio Balker
15. Dion Charles
17. Marcus McGuane
19. Bali Mumba
20. Josh Feeney

SUBSTITUTES

Jak Alnwick; Lasse Sorensen, Mickel Miller, David Kasumu, Bobby Wales, Will Alves, Cameron Ashia

Blackpool

Starting XI: Peacock-Farrell, Casey, Ihiekwe, Husband ©, Walters, Brown, Anderson, Clarkson, Hamilton, Obafemi, Fletcher

Subs: Ravizzoli, Ashworth, Finnigan, Richardson, Bowler, Ennis, Bloxham

[Lord Snooty]

Bradford's lost.

[jjamez]

Means nothing if we don't win, to be honest I don't care too much about what anyone else does as long as we do well, we can only effect ourselves. Sometimes I think teams in general get guilty of taking their eyes off the ball when it comes to another losing

[Lord Snooty]

Well. Back to the bad old Town in the first half.

[theo_luddite]

Can we leave one in the dressing room for the 2nd half?

[Lord Snooty]

Can't understand Charles going off.