Rare that Blackpool have ever dominated the sports headlines as much as they are at present but for die hard Blackpool fans who are proud of this club's long and illustrious history, it may be as well to look away now. Sadly the headline makers have had a field day at the Seasiders expense and is it any wonder with the club lurching from one crisis to the next. On Saturday at Penrith, the farce was there for all to see.
Some of the headlines and stories included the following:
101 Goals website: FARCE: Blackpool’s comically sad tweets with seven ‘trialists’ named in their squad v Penrith. Championship side Blackpool, who were in the Premier League as recently as 2012, are now of the verge of becoming a laughing stock.
Mirror: What's his name? Desperate Blackpool play friendly with FIVE trialists as crisis continues. There are only eight players in the Championship side's squad - and it showed in their line-up for their friendly at Penrith.
Bleacher report website: Blackpool Field Ridiculous XI for Penrith Friendly with Only 8 Players on Books. Triallists were also named on the bench–if you're one of the contracted players, you'd have to feel a little disheartened to still not be making the starting XI.
The Independent: Blackpool post hilarious team-sheet for pre-season match against Penrith with five players named 'Trialist' as club attempts to survive with eight squad members
Metro Newspaper: Blackpool’s starting lineup for friendly with Penrith is absolutely ridiculous. Blackpool have just eight players. That’s been fine during the off-season (hey, it’s less wages to pay) but now pre-season has started and there’s matches to play, it’s a bit of an issue.
I can't imagine the Sunday paper boy was welcomed with open arms at Oyston Towers this morning! As another week goes by and the silence from Bloomfield Road from both Chairman and Manager becomes increasingly depressing, the one solace from yesterday's embarassing situation was that those players who pulled on a tangerine shirt did so with pride and enjoyed a comfortable 4-0 win. As we move in to another week of uncertainty, you can only hope that some of that pride finds it's way to the Chairman's office.