| In all honesty, we were never in the game, and the result didn't flatter the home side one bit. Other than a bright opening ten minutes for Dale, there was only ever going to be one winner from this game, and in the end it could have been worse had Blackpool took advantage of some of their chances..
As for excuses, well you could blame the whistle happy referee, you ould blame tiredness on the part of the players and you could blame bad luck for Blackpool scoring at opportune times, but when it comes down to it, we just weren't good enough this evening.
We played the long ball game which has brought us much success in recent home matches, but this proved to be mostly ineffective against a three man Blackpool central defence. Pool's Loan signing Danny Shittu dropped back five yards every time the long hoof came forward and that did the job perfectly. It allowed him to judge the ball coming down and react accordingly, meaning that Blackpool won possession back time after time.
Our defence couldn't cope with the pace offered by Blackpool's front two, notably Brett Ormerod who was a constant pain all night long. He ran our defence ragged, and could have scored more than he did, had Edwards not made two or three great saves.
The midfield? Well most of the time, the Dale play just surpassed the midfield by lumping it over the top. Most of their jobs consisted of trying to pick up the pieces from when attacks broke down.
Overall? Do I not like orange!
Dale went into the game unchanged from Monday night's victory over Lincoln City, meaning that many all of the Dale team were playing their third match in six days. The good news for Dale supporters was that Paul Connor had been passed fit to play having sufficiently recovered from his groin strain.
The Blackpool side contained the likes of former Man City midfielder Paul Simpson who proved that despite his aging years (though nothing compared to Ford!), he was still a very dangerous player. Blackpool were also forced into a last minute change when club captain and former bury defender Ian Hughes was injured in the warm up for the match.
With the Dale ticket allocation sold out, there were huge queues at the turnstiles, where Blackpool decided to only have two turnstiles open for the away enclosure. To be fair to them, they only had two turnstiles for that section, so there wasn't a lot else they could do. Many Dale fans were also turned away from the turnstiles for turning up without tickets, with some being forced to try the home end. Some weren't so lucky.
The game began very brightly for Dale, and within the opening minute, the referee had managed to infuriate the Dale supporters already, when he failed to notice Clive Platt being dragged back as he broke free down the middle chasing a long ball over the top.
It was looking very promising for Dale, as we had the home side under a fair bit of pressure in this opening spell. We had a couple of corners, and Mark Monington got his head on both of them, just firing over with his first effort. Paul Connor was also causing Blackpool a bit of trouble, and it was only down to a couple of last ditch challenges by Paul Reid that stopped him being in the clear.
After this though, the home side began to come to terms with the style of play they were facing and they adjusted their own game accordingly, and subsequently they soon became the better team. Blackpool, although not really creating any clear cut chances, were very much in the ascendancy. They played the far better football, passing the ball well, and with plenty of movement. It was notable that every time a Dale player cleared our lines, the ball would go to a waiting Pool player, who would have options out wide on either side of him.
As the half progressed, the Blackpool attacks started to look more and more threatening, and Edwards was called into action on one or two occasions. It certainly seemed like it was becoming a case of holding out for half time. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to do this.
Keith Hill was adjudged to have made an unfair challenge by the linesman just in front of the Dale support. Looked harsh, but it was consistent with the stop start refereeing both sides had to put up with all evening. The free kick was from out wide on the right hand touchline. Up popped Paul Simpson, who decided to have a cheeky little shot to the near post, with Dale keeper Edwards more towards the other post, more concerned about the cross. The ball was going goalwards, but Edwards managed to get to his near post, and palm the ball away but Brett Ormerod reacted first and poked the ball home to give Blackpool an injury time lead over Dale.
There were several people pointing the finger at Neil Edwards, laying the blame at his door for this goal, but although he did palm the ball away, the goal came about because the Blackpool attack reacted quicker than we did.
This proved to be the worst possible time for Dale to concede a goal, as it had looked like we would manage to withstand the Blackpool attacks to half time at least.
After the break, it was just one way traffic for the most part. We lacked creative ideas, resorting to the big kick from Edwards, which was so easy to deal with by the Blackpool defence. They on the other hand, ran rings round our defence, and it was only a couple of great saves by Edwards that stopped them increasing their lead further.
However, the way the game was going, we were never going to be able to hold out for much longer, and seventeen minutes into the second half, Blackpool got a deserved second goal. It was that man Brett Ormerod again, who broke clear of the Dale defence for the second or third time already in that half, and he calmy slotted it past Edwards to double the seasiders' advantage, waking the home supporters up in the process.
Effectively, the game was all over at this point, but had there been any lingering thoughts about a Dale comeback, then within another minute, they were all over as Blackpool grabbed a third whilst we were still trying to come to terms with conceding the second goal. The third came when Paul Simpson who was at the heart of everything in midfield, pciked up the ball on the halway line, went on a run, before putting the ball on a plate for former Dale target John Murphy at the back post who headed home his 23rd goal of the season.
At this point, it became time to wave the white flag, and start saving players' legs for Saturday's game with Mansfield. Ford, Connor and Flitcroft were all brought off in place of Lancashire, Hadland, and Paul Ware respectively. It was these changes that at least gave Dale fans something to smile about in the closing stages.
Substitute Phil Hadland was at the heart of the improvements as he at least offered something different for Dale. Just five days earlier, he had his worst game for the club against Barnet, but in this game, he looked at least a million times better, doing what we know he can do. He ran at the Blackpool defence causing them no end of problems, and got in a couple of decent crosses too.
Indeed, one of those crosses at least gave Dale a consolation. He put a cross in from the right hand side, which was met by Graham Lancashire at the back post, who headed home at the second attempt to score against his home town club to give Dale fans a glimmer of hope. It was to be nothing more than that.
If that goal gave the Dale fans something to smile about, then within the next couple of minutes, they were quickly wiped off our faces, as Neil Edwards was sent off. Edwards came racing off his line and contested a high ball with John Murphy just outside the Blackpool box. Murphy, with the height advantage, got to the ball first, and headed it past Edwards, then found his run impeded by the body of Edwards. It was very difficult to judge without having the advantage of a video replay, but it didn't appear that Edwards could do much else about it after losing the initial challenge.
The subsequent suspensions will see Neil Edwards miss out on any play off involvement, or the first few games of next season, whichever is applicable. Bang goes his dream chance of leading Dale out in South Wales for the play off final.
With all three subs used, and Flitcroft off the field already, it was Michael Oliver who went in goals, who saved well the subsequent free kick at the second attempt.
The Dale fans trooped out of the ground as the game reached injury time, with heads firmly dropped, many a post mortem was taking place. Was this a case of the players not performing again? I don't think you could fault them for effort or work rate at all tonight. It may have been a game too far for many of the weary legs, especially against a side which were as "up for it" as Blackpool were.
The big question will now be whether the players can recover both physically and mentally in time for Saturday's game. They need to bounce back in the same way that they did for the Lincoln game. It is still in our own hands!
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