Gus Poyet is still young enough to have played against Kevin Phillips. After the game he recalled: “I remember playing against him for Chelsea against Sunderland when he scored a couple of goals”. When Poyet became aware that Phillips was leaving Birmingham in the summer, he tried to sign him despite the fact he reached his 38th birthday on 25th July. Phillips was also being courted by Ian Holloway, who could no longer afford to pay the wages demanded by his leading scorers last season after being relegated from the Premiership. Phillips admitted that the main reason for his decision concerned his family home in the Midlands. “I had a good chat with Gus Poyet but signing for Blackpool meant I didn't have to relocate”.
Poyet warned his players about the danger Phillips would pose but they were unable to stop him scoring two second-half goals that stopped Brighton from winning their first four games. It would have been the first time that they had done this since 1953. Poyet commented: “It feels strange to have not won. We did practically everything right. But you can’t give Kevin Phillips opportunities like that. He is one player you do not need to show videos of to your own players. He is top class.”
Poyet is being overly generous to his team when he says they “did practically everything right”. Despite the fact that according to Phillips the team had “a nightmare eight-and-a-half-hour trip on the coach”, Blackpool started the brighter. They kept the ball better and several times during the opening minutes, Brighton’s defenders slipped on the over-watered turf and only narrowly escaped letting Blackpool’s forwards from having a clear run-in on goal. Despite their greater possession, Blackpool failed to create any clear-cut chances.
Brighton did have their bright moments. Most of these came from Craig Noone, who was given his first league start of the season. Throughout the early stages of the game he drifted from side to side just in front of Blackpool’s backline. Several times he got the ball quickly under control and took on the Blackpool defenders. In the 9th minute he was brought down and after picking himself up he delivered a free kick that Inigo Calderon headed over when he should have worked the goalkeeper.
Twenty minutes later, Noone on the left wing, collected a long high ball out of defence. After exchanging passes with Dicker, Noone, provided a lovely cross they just went over Gilk’s outstretched hand and the ever busy Mackail-Smith headed into the open net.
The goal gave Brighton the confidence they needed and for the rest of the half they looked for the first time the better team. Brighton also started the second-half well and in the 50th minute Greer cleverly flicked on Noone’s in-swinging corner and Ashley Barnes was able to score from close-range. Barnes, scorer of 20 goals in Brighton’s promotion season, has shown that he is capable of scoring goals against better quality defenders.
As one wag had said after the game against Cardiff that Brighton “have taken to the higher level like Seagulls to mackerel” and most fans probably thought that Brighton would now go on to win the game fairly comfortable. However, it has to be remembered that last season Blackpool were in the Premiership and are one of the favorites to get promotion. Ian Holloway is also a shrewd manager and he had clearly spotted a weakness in the Brighton defence. During the second-half the Blackpool side made numerous high crosses to the far post that were intended to take advantage of Ankergren’s reluctance to come for the ball.
In the 58th minute Holloway made all his three substitutions together. The most important of these was Eardley, who is a great provider of crosses. Two minutes later a long ball by Eardley caused confusion in the Brighton defence. Ankergren began to come off his line but then changed his mind. Dunk, who assumed his keeper would take the ball, desperately tried to reach it but it went over his head and Phillips had little difficulty in nodding it home.
Blackpool were now in the ascendency and were dominating possession. Like Doncaster in the previous game at the Amex, Blackpool began to hold a high backline that congested the midfield. Against Doncaster Poyet had counteracted this strategy by bringing on two wingers that made full use of the width of the pitch. In the 62nd minute Poyet did bring on LuaLua but took off Noone, who had been a best attacker. After the game Poyet said he had done this to save Noone for games coming up. Whatever the reason, it worked to the Seagulls disadvantage. Whereas Noone had moved all over the field, LuaLua stationed himself on the left-wing and it was fairly easy to mark him out of the game. LuaLua did have one good run and cross in the 72th minute but Mackail-Smith’s short-range shot was blocked by Gilks.
Brighton was only to have one more chance to extend their lead. In the 77th minute Ashley Barnes was blatantly tripped in the area when he tried to reach a cross from the left. Although the referee probably had his eyes on the ball, I cannot understand how the linesman missed it.
Whereas Brighton continued to play their short passing game, Blackpool more and more relied on long diagonal balls to the wings. It was one of these balls that forced a corner. With only seconds of normal time remaining, Stephen Crainey took it and Phillips volleyed in from 12 yards for the equaliser.
Blackpool had 54% of the possession and fully deserved the draw. However, it was hard to take after being two goals up. I am sure the players, and more importantly, Poyet will learn a great deal from thisexperience. One thing we will have to sort out is how we react when the opposition set out to make it difficult for us to play our short-passing game.
John Simkin (grandfather)
Referee Philip Gibbs was having a good game until he was hit on the head by the ball in the 56th minute. Maybe he lost a few brain cells. Brighton could have had a 100% record if it was not for Gibbs. In the 77th minute Barnes was tripped in the box, but the referee gave no penalty! At the time Brighton were 2-1 up and if the referee had given the foul and we had scored we would have won because they scored again. We were the best team in the first-half but Blackpool came back in the second-half.
Alex Davies (grandson)
Ankergren (5), Calderon (6), Painter (6), Dunk (6), Greer (6), Dicker (6), Vincelot (7), Bridcutt (6), Noone (8), Mackail-Smith (8), Barnes (6): Subs: LuaLua (6) and Navarro (5)
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