You reap what you sow. A pre-season of disarray, disappointment and disharmony was always going to be tough to put behind Jose Riga's men but you just hoped a whole new team, a new way of thinking and playing and a new campaign would result in a better Blackpool. Sadly all the bad habits, poor performances and clueless football of last season was all too evident again at Bloomfield Road.
After Saturday's inspiring second half display where Blackpool did more than enough to earn a point against Blackpool, you'd have thought the introduction of Zoko in to the squad and with Fonz out wide that Riga had struck a nice balance of a good attacking side to set their stall out against Brentford - and they did for 25 minutes, Some neat football, a vocal (if small) home crowd and an early goal should have set Blackpool up for their first points of the season. However, the novelty of having a lead clearly took it's toll and the following hour was back to the dark days of last season.
It was Nathan Delfouneso gave the home side an early lead when he headed home Francois Zoko's left-wing cross. But Alex Pritchard levelled for the Bees when he met Moses Odubajo's lay-off and fired home from 25 yards. And Dallas settled it when he stole the ball off Donervon Daniels near the by-line and cut inside to fire home. Blackpool did not go down without a fight, staging a late rally after bringing former Newcastle striker Nile Ranger off the bench with 15 minutes to go. Nile Ranger, on as a sub, set up a golden chance for Sergei Zenjov to equalise six minutes from time, but Bees keeper David Button denied him from six yards. Delfouneso also went close in the closing stages, firing over the bar, but Brentford held out to take all three points.
The stats are there for all to see, Defeat leaves Blackpool with just one win from their last 13 games in all competitions. After losing 27 players this summer and signing 17, the Seasiders do not have a point to show for their three league matches so far this season. The crowd of 9,939 was well down on their average of 14,216 at Bloomfield Road last season. That's where we're at and sadly it looks like we may well have to get used to it for some time.