Swansea City were dealt a footballing lesson at Bloomfield Road as they were humiliated by their hosts

There are some evenings when it is not pleasant to be a football fan and tonight was one of them.

Virtually right from the first whistle - shortly after we scratched our heads at the team selection - we were second best to a Blackpool side who passed the ball around neatly and looked a threat every time they had the ball in their possession.    And that was quite often as even when we seemed to get the ball we were almost hell bent onn giving it back to them on an evening when it almost looked as if the hectic fixture list of the last month had caught up with us.

Too many players were sub par on the evening and even on occasion when we did get the ball - more so when it was 1-0 to the home side - we lost control at vital stages just when it appeared that we may actually threaten the home defence.

The team selection - as mentioned above - raised a few eyebrows to the travelling support when it was announced over the PA syste,.   However, that is nothing unusual in this season where we have prided ourselves on a tight defence that was in search of equalling the club record 22 clean sheets in a season.

However, many questioned whether we would do that long before the team lined up and the answer to "who would play left back" was Cedric Van Der Gun - probably one of the least likely scenarios that had been proposed by the supporters on the day.

Thus the Swans lined up as

Dorus

Rangel     Tate     Williams     Van Der Gun

Dyer     Britton     Gower     Bauza     Cotterill

Kuqi

Now the problem with priding yourself on a strong defence is when that defence fails to function then you will almost cause your own downfall and it took less than fifteen minutes for Blackpool to expose our weaknesses on the day.   They had already threatened and come close when Ormerod gave them the lead on 13 minutes.   He was first to react after De Vries had saved a Blackpool shot and the striker beat Ashley Williams to the ball to give the home side the lead much to the excitement of chav corner to the Swans fans right.

The Swans were rattled and Blackpool quickly probed to try and get a second before we tried to stamp some authority on the game.   At this stage the play was equal and there was little sign of the hammering that was about to come as - led by Britton - the midfield started to function and in particular Dyer had the beating of the home side left back on more than one occasion which then made the decision to switch him and Cotterill's flanks even more bizarre when it happened ten minutes before the interval.

Bussy had had a decent shout for a penalty and Gower had failed to control a perfect Bussy through ball as the Swans looked to get back into the game without really troubling the home keeper when we were done bya  sucker blow in first half stoppage time.  Evatt drove a loose ball in the area home to double Blackpool's lead and probably effectively kill off the goal shy Swans chances of getting anything out of the road trip.

Pratley was introduced at half time for Cotterill with Sousa moving Van Der Gun up the pitch and Gower back to left back in a bid ti change things but the killer blow arrived almost immediately when the third went in courtesy of Burgess who finished off from close range after a shot had struck the post.

The game was over and Rangel had the first serious threat on goal with a header with the Swans shell shocked and at this stage it did look like Blackpool could come through us at will.   We gave the ball away cheaply and looked sloppy and tired as the home side pushed and further goals from Ormerod and Gary Taylor Fletcher opened up a five goal advantage that really did serve as a wake up call to us that there is still much work to be done if we want to extend the season beyond the first weekend in May.

Van Der Gun pulled one back - almost our customary goal a game - but it made little difference to the feeling of the evening - one of despondency as we had our worst defeat at this level since returning here last season.

Of course we haven't turned into a bad side overnight but we have hit a bad patch of form - 5 points from the last 18 available - and that is something we need to turn around before we give more hope to those sides looking to break into the top six.

A bad day at the office, too many sub par performances from too many and credit to Blackpool who are a good side and fully deserved their victory on the night - and by the margin in which they achieved it.

Paulo now needs to get his players together and pick them up for Saturday and beyond, we are still in prime position for the play off spots - let's not lose sight of that despite the margin of defeat

Onwards.....?

Photo: Action Images

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