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Very tough hard fought game with both teams matching each other in passing, skill and fitness terms. Blackpool knew it was going to be a tough game following the home game against a physical but skilful Glaxo side. The game was played at a frantic pace, with Glaxo having the best of the early exchanges, however the Blackpool Defence of Woodman, Abbott, Pasqualino, Boniface and Kilshaw held fast and kept the Glaxo strikers at bay. Glaxo didn’t have it all their own way and Blackpool should have taken the lead through Blacow with half time beckoning, unfortunately the Glaxo keeper just managed to get his stick to Blacow’s flick shot and diverted the ball wide.
The captain asked for more of the same in the 2nd half. The game followed the same pattern as the 1st with both team probing to find a way through good defences. Glaxo found the break through via a short corner. A well worked move saw the Glaxo player flick to ball past the stranded Kilshaw to put Glaxo 1 nil up. Blackpool upped their game and found a new gear, putting Glaxo under extreme pressure on the counter attack. A well work move resulted in Morgan sweeping the ball into the net precisely at the moment the umpire gave a short corner. Fortunately, Blacow scored from the short with a well executed drag flick which deflected off a Glaxo defender and into the back of the net. 1-1 and everything to play for. Both teams once again drove forward looking for the winning goal and a period of end to end hockey ensued. Blackpool started to get on top and only frantic Glaxo defence and their Goalkeeper kept Blackpool from scoring.
Then disaster, a miss placed pass across the D by a Blackpool defender [edit: there’s a clue to his identity in the title!] was picked up by the Glaxo striker who waited for Kilshaw to go down before calmly flicking the ball over him and into the net. The whole Blackpool team were gutted! It is to their credit though that they kept fighting for a equaliser until the very last second. Once again Blackpool were beaten by just 1 goal when they really deserved at least a draw from the game.
© Dave Morgan 06/02/07