Blackpool away is always a seasonal highlight to me; always a pleasure, never a chore – I may revise that thought for the future! As I have family in the area and, although a Yorkshire man by birth, I do slip among the old enemy very easily once back in Northern climes.
My wife Carolyn accompanied me on our northerly travels to witness just her third Baggies match in the last 45 years; although having been to see them play at Blackpool twice now, she has become an expert in Albion performances at Bloomfield Road as I’ll elude to later on.
We booked a very well know hotel for overnight accommodation in a place called Wrea Green four miles outside Blackpool, but the hotel name would have had Northy and many other Albion fans giving it a wide berth as it's called The Villa!
I'd like to report that it was a charmless place with no atmosphere inhabited by morons, but in fact it lived up to its reputation for being a quality establishment. A pre-match stroll to see the illuminations saw the pair of us get soaked and yours truly couldn't find his way back to the car and thus we entered the ground in miserable personal conditions. Moist did not do a fair description of the pair of us justice. I warned the wife that Albion had benefited from the "rub of the green" against Blackpool in recent seasons and that we were due to run out of luck at some stage and boy.......didn't we just!
Team selection
Having spent the day travelling I wasn't up to date with the injury situation, but to see Ibanez in for Olsson was not a surprise. But Cox replacing Morrison certainly brought a different dimension to the evening and although a big fan of Cox – don't bother with the jokes folks! – I did think "Jimmy" might be a big miss on the night.
First Half
A bright start by both sides to be honest but I thought Albion were looking slick in possession and both Thomas and Brunt were finding space out wide. Brunt proved wasteful in the extreme when clean through on the right of the area but spooned an effort wide with his "swinger" when cutting back onto his left or squaring for another player would have put us into the lead; a big moment as it transpired.
Up to the 12th minute we'd defended well with no real alarms until the first sending off and the penalty. DJ Campbell succeeded in squaring up Ibanez and then took the opportunity to go over the Spaniard’s leg. From where I was stood to see a penalty given was a shock to virtually every sane person in the ground. I doubt that Blackpool would have got that decision at The Hawthorns and at worst it was obstruction, but let's be honest, it’s a hideous facet of the game nowadays that players look to run into the opponent’s leg and take the dive. To see Ibanez shown the red card left me and most others initially gobsmacked and then quickly enraged at such a ridiculous and typically officious piece of refereeing. It was pure nonsense....utter, utter nonsense.
From my position Ibanez hardly looked last man, and as Ian Holloway so beautifully described it on the radio later: "I really don't know how the ref could have believed that their lad was denying a goalscoring opportunity to Campbell. If he'd seen his finishing during the rest of the evening he'd have known there was no chance he'd get it past Scott Carson from that position!".......brilliant Ian!
So, down to ten men, time to regroup and it was bye bye to Simon Cox who departed laughing to himself at the irony of having just made his first start of the season. The introduction of Steven Reid was understandable to add physicality to the side but personally I thought Cox's mobility was more use on the night than Fortune's bulk so it was a shame for the lad.
Now we come to the Jara incident! I've seen some acts of stupidity by Albion players over the years but this is a contender for top spot. It's a good job Gonzalo wasn't stuck down that mine for two months – patience is obviously not a virtue with our Chilean.
A horrible challenge on Varney and a fully deserved straight red card. The only thing "Wonder boy" referee Oliver got right all night. Time to regroup again with Dorrans coming on for Fortune. A masterstroke from our leader in my opinion! Within five minutes of going down to nine men the Baggies seemed to have worked out exactly how to play a limited Blackpool side and the game itself became intriguing; to me personally, it was a master class in positional play and nous by our boys.
Half time arrived with no further damage.
Second Half
One of the best halves of football I’ve enjoyed watching as Albion not only contained Blackpool but also attacked with zeal and purpose, despite hopeless odds and Thomas coming mightily close to equalizing with a deflected shot with Gilks a spectator.
My one slight criticism on the night was that I thought Thomas should have used his pace to attack their defence more often to try and get into the box as I felt a penalty to "even up" things might have been on the cards; but this would have been a long shot considering that ref wouldn't have given us the drippings off his nose, as the old saying goes.
Blackpool went 2-0 up as a good cross from the right was converted by Varney – Reg to me, although the youngsters won't understand! I thought it was a really unjust scoreline considering our level of possession and defending qualities but we just got outnumbered.
It was nice to see Dorrans coming back to life. The adversity of the evening suited Graham and he seemed like a man released from recent pressures as he ran around like a lunatic closing down, creating and nearly getting on the end of chances.
Long range efforts from Brunt whistled wide before the excellent "mini Kaka" Mulumbu weaved his way into the area and bent a delicious effort into the far corner to get us back to 1-2..........game on with five minutes plus injury to go.
A couple of scares for their defence including a shot over the bar from close range by Reid had their fans wearing brown trousers and when Carson appeared for our last corner. I thought it was written in the God's that El Capitano was going to get us the point I thought we deserved.
The Referee
A 25 year old buffoon destined to blight our game for the remainder of my time on the planet.
Hard to work out if he is either a "homer" of a ref or just monumentally incompetent.....I’ll go for the latter. An embarrassment to his profession.
Conclusions
Football is a game of opinions and rightly so. I'm sure Blackpool fans will think they had about twenty chances and played us off the park, whilst I can only offer my view of proceedings. I thought we were magnificent and I can honestly say that I have rarely enjoyed a match as much as I did last night. I found it to be truly enthralling and the chess like way in which we tried to deal with our overwhelming problems was terrific entertainment. Di Matteo has produced not only a team of skill, athleticism and know-how, but also a team of tremendous heart and certainly it has more bottle than any of our teams since the late 1970s.
The wife made an interesting comment to me as well in saying how well she thought we kept hold of the ball compared to the last game she saw at Blackpool two seasons ago, and she thought we'd come on a great deal....this was with nine men compared to their twelve, of course.
I can't give a man of the match; every player who contributed once Ibanez and Jara departed played their part in a truly memorable night and I would have liked to have shaken the hand of every single player to tell them how proud they made me feel last night. I have no fears for our season after last night: this team is made of the right stuff.