This is a tasty one! The eccentric Ian Holloway, their Player’s Player from last season Shaun Barker returns as a Ram, plus one of their defenders, Ian Evatt is Derby through and through, to the point he once refused to fly out from Nottingham Robin Hood airport!

Derby County v Blackpool

August 18, 2009 - 7:45 pm

Bloomfield Road

Blackpool: 

The Seasiders are so far unbeaten this season, having drawn twice in the CC Championship and won away in the Carling Cup against Crewe, so they are likely to be a hard nut to crack.  They will be looking to emulate last season’s win when they beat us 3 – 2.

Blackpool have gone through considerable changes with Barker (where’s he gone to?), Jorgensen, Gow, Rehman, Hammill, and Fox all moved on.  Burgess, their striker and scorer of one of their goals against us last season, is likely to be out through injury (sounds familiar!)

Holloway, discussing the draw against hotly fancied Cardiff, commented:

"Today I think we played very well against a side tipped for the top. I have shown the lads how we must get forward and it is lovely to see your great big defender curling a goal in like that.

"We deserved three points today but so far we have only got two points from two games and that means one thing - points lost."

He also added:

"We will be working on our set pieces which is something we have not looked at enough. I have apologised to the lads for that."

Blackpool Squad: 

Goalkeepers:
1. Paul Rachubka
13. Mark Halstead
21. Matt Gilks
Defenders:
2. Danny Coid
3. Stephen Crainey
5. Neal Eardley
6. Ian Evatt
15. Alex John-Baptiste
22. Ashley Eastham
24. Rob Edwards
Midfielders:
4. Keith Southern
11. David Vaughan
14. Joe Martin
25. Louis Almond
26. Charlie Adam
27. Ishmel Demontagnac
Strikers:
7. Billy Clarke
8. Stephen Mcphee
9. Ben Burgess
10. Brett Ormerod
12. Gary Taylor-Fletcher
17. Danny Mitchley
18. Jason Euell
23. Daniel Nardiello

Games this season:

August 8th: Away to QPR D 1 – 1 Att. 14,013 Scorer Burgess CCC
August 11th: Away to Crewe W 2 – 1 Att 2,991 Scorers Nowland, Nardiello LGCP
August 17th: Home to Cardiff D 1 -1 Att 7,798 Scorer Evatt CCC

The Rams:

Our present squad is considerably different from that faced the Tangerines last season.  Of those who turned out or sat on the bench last time round, Davis, Stewart, Barazite, Sterjovski, Ellington, Nyatanga, Carroll, Villa, Kazmierczak have all gone or are stuck in the revolving door going outwards.

Derby will be wanting to bounce back after two successive defeats away. 

Robbie Savage recently stated: "We are as one as a team and we have to brush ourselves down and respond this week."  They will certainly need to tighten up at the back and this is where Barker may be fired up against his old club to get one over his erstwhile team-mates. 

Certainly the Rams need to tighten up at the back – most teams assume that having scored two goals, they are good for at least one point if not all three. And this is where Clough may be tempted to introduce Leacock who has sat out the last two games.

Hulse and Commons are also likely to be given a run-out at some point but I suspect that the team that starts will be pretty much the same as the last game apart from Barker coming in for Connolly.

My predicted team, based on a 4-5-1 formation is:

Bywater, Barker, Addison, Buxton, Moxey, Croft, Savage, Green, Pearson, McEveley, Teale. 

Subs: Commons, Hulse, Leacock, Varney, Pringle, Deeney, Connolly.

Latest odds from bet365: 


Seasiders win 6/4,
Rams win 9/5, Draw 9/4

Information for traveling fans (from Blackpool.co.uk) :

By Car
Blackpool FC is arguably the easiest ground in the Football League to find. Based near the end of the M55, access to the ground is very, very easy.  The gosomewhere.com site states that there are more than 8,000 car parking spaces in central Blackpool.  The trouble spot is the junction with the M6 where traffic gets held up sometimes by as much as half an hour so motorists are advised to add extra time to their journey.

By Train
The nearest train station is BLACKPOOL SOUTH, although the town's main train station is BLACKPOOL NORTH some twenty minutes walk from the ground.  One word of warning – Blackpool North and Blackpool South do not have connecting services if you are thinking of going early and think you can nip onto a connection to Blackpool South from Blackpool North. You can’t.

By Air
Blackpool also boasts its own international airport with flights to Belfast, Dublin, Isle of Man, Palma, Malaga, Sorrento, Faro, Gerona, Jersey, Murcia and Alicante so Derby fans based abroad might be able to fly in, but no internal flights from East Midlands airport or London airports.

By Coach
Leaving Derby at 12.50 arriving at 18.10 via Manchester with National Express. Returning next day.

The PRedfern PRediction: 2-2 

Well i do like to be beside the seaside but even so I believe the match will finish all square. There will be goals and there will be holes.... in both defences.

Photo: Action Images

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