What To Expect From Blackpool

This Boxing Day will see Huddersfield Town host Blackpool at The John Smiths Stadium. These two met earlier on in the season with the terriers coming out on top against the tangerines at Bloomfield Road on a cold, wet & windy night by three goals to one. Things are slightly different now for both teams and a similar result seems unlikely as Huddersfield go into this game on a poor run of form having not won one game in their last seven outings. On the other hand, Blackpool are on the up after previous manager Ian Holloway was replaced by Michael Appleton who has since got his team playing his style of football and it is working.

This view has been echoed by lifelong Blackpool fan Laura Bates who has provided us with a fantastic article outlining what to expect from her beloved side tomorrow afternoon;

After the departure of Ian Holloway, most people believed that our promotion chances had vanished. People described our new manager to be ‘the cheap’ option slating him before he even had a week in charge, after going 8 games without defeat opinions have began to change.  The team is starting to blend together with an Appleton flavour to it; they look fitter and more organised now.  The team have got more steel to their game and we have lost some of the cavalier exploits from the Holloway era.

After the brilliant start that we had, it was expected that we would be the team to beat this season. However, things changed when Huddersfield visited us in September for the televised fixture which then resulted in a slump in form which then saw us only picking up 5 points from a possible 21.  This has now changed, results have improved and we are now beginning to move up the table. 

There will still be mixed feelings from Blackpool supporters when they see the Huddersfield manager Simon Grayson due to the nature of his departure from the Seasider’s to Leeds, leaving them in the lurch with all the loan players he had signed leaving at the same time.  The departure left a sour taste to most Blackpool fans and nearly cost us our Championship status.

It will be nice to see Peter Clarke and Keith Southern again who were both favourites of the Blackpool supporters during their time at Bloomfield Road.  Southern spent 10 years at Blackpool, he will always be fondly remembered and we all wish him the best of luck!  
After Gary-Taylor Fletcher signed from the Terriers in 2007, he has become a fans favourite over the years showing real potential becoming a regular first team player till he got injured.  After coming on, on Friday against Wolves it is expected that he will be back in the starting 11 when we come to face Huddersfield on Boxing Day.

Opposition sides have seen Blackpool this season to be a one man team. With Tom Ince taking all the headlines with 13 assists and 9 goals in 20 league appearances it is understandable that Premier League teams want to snap up the young England under 21 star.  However as I am sure you will all see on Boxing Day that Blackpool are far from a ‘one man team’, with midfield steel from Osborne and the defensive skills of Baptiste plus others we will be a hard nut to crack this Christmas.

The reverse fixture saw Huddersfield take all 3 points deservedly,  with us being battered 3-1, showing one of our worst performances at home in a long time.  Hopefully on the 26th we will put out a better performance, take our chances and come back to Blackpool with all 3 points!

For my prediction, I am feeling a 3-2 victory for the mighty Pool! GTF with 1 and Ince with the other 2.