The second half had fewer chances for us, but still good ones. Sadly, it also had another goal for Blackpool, and once again, I’ve got to fault Jacko. You know I really like him, and I even championed him as a possible direct replacement for Paudie if the captain leaves, but on last night’s showing, I’m not so sure. He’s missed his clearance for the first goal, and then missed a clearing header for the second. When the ball drops to Casey, the only player between him and the goal is Freddie Draper, not our centre-halves. That said, Freddie is marking him and gets blocked by Tendayi in the melee before the finish. It’s great movement from Casey, and even though he wouldn’t get the header if Jacko clears, it’s a better goal than most will understand, purely for his movement to create the space.
Blackpool could easily have had a third, which would have been the very definition of a flattering scoreline, but Zach Jeacock once again proved his worth. It’s a point-blank effort from CJ Hamilton, Jeacock comfortably pulling off the save to keep the scores down. I thought the keeper had another good game – his distribution was really good, he made four saves across the night and feels like a solid presence. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it doesn’t feel like we have a reserve keeper in the sticks right now.
After their second and the Hamilton effort, Blackpool retreated, and as many will point out, this will account for our increased xG. I actually felt if we could get one, we’d get a second and draw the game, I do feel we looked like we could score, which is in stark contrast to Christmas. The attacking subs we made, Reeco in particular, gave us a bit of impetus, and James Collins certainly provides a focal point for an attack. He looked livelier (perhaps) when Jovon Makama came on, but he and Freddie combined for one chance. The latter provided a flick-on, Collins firing high into the cold night sky with Tyrer covering well.
Collins also had the ball in the net, only for it to be ruled out for offside. Makama was the original architect of the chance, a little backheel to Ethan Hamilton unlocking the defence. Hamilton had a lot of work to do but drove forward, looking more like his old self, slipping in Collins. He forced a superb one-handed save from Tyrer, and the recycled chance was stabbed home, only to be ruled out for offside. It does look to me as if Morgan and Offiah are playing him onside, but they are the breaks sometimes. Honestly, if it goes in, on 78 minutes, I felt we’d go on to get another. It didn’t and we didn’t.
Ultimately, we lost the game 2-0, and the ‘win good, lose bad’ brigade are sure to point out there was a lot of difference between this and Saturday. There was, but the differences were not us, they were with the opposition. We created chances, good chances, and the same players had big games (Bayliss was excellent). However, Blackpool blocked well, their keeper made the vital saves, and we just didn’t defend adequately. In his post-match interview, Michael Skubala said the first goal was unlike us, but I feel we’ve been prone to giving away silly goals this season. In fact, I can recall the EFL Trophy against Bolton and Tendayi’s poor pass for Posh on Saturday, which was just in January alone. I don’t want to have to think about the others, as it makes me feel a bit sick.
Ultimately, I think we played well in patches, showed nice passages of play and delivered a threat at times. We’ve created as many good chances, according to xG, in the last two fixtures as we did in games against Northampton, Stevenage, Bolton Wanderers (twice) and Rotherham combined, and only marginally less when you throw in Shrewsbury on Boxing Day as well.
I feel much more content now than I did after the Stevenage game, even though we’ve lost 2-0. The play-offs do feel like a stretch, but there’s a lot of football to be played and even my analysis from yesterday accounted for us not taking as many points from Tuesday night games. I do feel midweek matches are the bane of our life at present – this season in League One we’ve played six, lost four, drawn one and won one. In those matches we’ve scored four and conceded ten goals. We’ve also lost to Harrogate, Chesterfield, and Bolton in the cup, and we needed a last-minute goal to beat Grimsby. it’s not exactly the magic of a floodlit encounter, is it?
Luckily, the Tuesday night games are fewer and farther between after Christmas – we have just three, Mansfield, Crawley and Huddersfield, to endure. Perhaps we can find a way to win in the league under the floodlights. Perhaps. If we keep doing what we’ve done the last two matches, I do predict a win or two, and I know we’ll pick up enough points between now and the end of the season for a top half finish.
Top six? I’m not sure. I suspect by the time February is done, we’ll be proudly singing ‘we’re not going down and we’re not going up’ on away trips. That said, there’s always a chance if you’re creating chances and finally, we seem to be doing just that.
Excellent article in my view Gary. I felt the only differences to Saturday were the Blackpool performance (superb defence and clinical attacking) and luck. It feels like we used ours up on Saturday. We had none last night. For some reason I saw very clearly the Adam Jackson miskick. I was right in line. The ball was bouncing as it went towards him, but kept very low after the last bounce as he went to kick it. It might not excuse it but might explain how a consistent and experienced pro can make what looked like a schoolboy howler. Up the Imps! I’m disappointed obviously but not disheartened.