… of the side he played with at college, Windermere, rather than the club that brought him through the junior ranks to the senior 1st team alongside his older, and more handsome, brother Joe. Quite simply, Windermere thoroughly deserved to beat Blackpool on this fine autumnal day.
Blackpool have two key players currently out with injuries, and several others (notably the older ones) suffering with recurring aches & pains, but despite this have a strong squad and have had two relatively straight forward league victories and a decent cup win against Div 2 opposition, so do not fear any side. However, they had a bad day at the office and Windermere are a very good side.
Windermere had the early possession and eventually one of their short corners worked, with a flying ball at the right side of the diving keeper Nick Rainbow. Disaster just a minute later when a quick counter-attack led to a 2-on-1 against Rainbow for an easy goal.
Blackpool started to attack in their own right, but kept trying to beat the Windermere defence one-on-one to no avail, as there’s a reason why they only conceded 16 goals last year. Then just after the break Blackpool went 3-0 down to another short corner.
Blackpool grabbed one back soon after, when a Windermere attack was intercepted in midfield, with Dave Morgan feeding Jay Currey down the right wing, who ran with the ball to the bye-line before crossing into the D for Steve Whitely to score, while Chris Hocking obscured the vision of the opposition keeper.
The comeback was short lived when another Blackpool mistake in their own 22 led to another Windermere goal. Back to being 3 goals down, Blackpool resorted to long balls and in-fighting. Short corners were won but to no avail. Windermere put a final nail in the coffin with a goal from an unmarked attacker to make it 5-1.
Blackpool’s first loss of the season, and a real wake-up call. Down to 3rd in Div 3N but now chasing Windermere and Keswick, and until the League can confirm the possibility of more than one side being promoted it’s going to be a tough fight.
© Peter Latimer 14/10/12