Strachan Searches For Excuses

Anyone who was at Bloomfield Road on Tuesday night to see Blackpool beat Middlesbrough 2-0 left the ground in no doubt that the Seasiders were good value for their win. Or did they? Gordon Strachan didn't.

Instead, the bitter Scot has used every excuse under the sun to try and explain not only why his team lost, but why they lost in such an abject manner.

First in the firing line was the pitch. Yes, its not brilliant at the moment, but the same could be said for most pitches in this country right now. In fact, the groundstaff had done a decent job on it as it was markedly better underfoot that it had been against West Brom and Leicester.

Strachan though said that the pitch made it difficult for his side to play football.

'We didn't play to the conditions or the pitch. It was a poor pitch and Barcelona would have struggled to play football on it,' the Scot said.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but Boro didn't really strike me as a passing side. Indeed, they were almost long ball merchants at times. As for the conditions, well, that was probably the mildest night there's been in Blackpool for months, and there was no wind and rain. Perhaps he means that it was too hot for him coming from Scotland?

But Strachan's criticism of the pitch didn't stop there.

'You'll probably not find a worse pitch,' he said.

Has he seen Colchester's pitch?! Anyway, the pitch didn't stop us from playing passing football did it? What a load of cobblers.

Next up was criticism for the referee after he failed to send Charlie Adam off for a professional foul. I too thought that Adam was lucky to stay on, but it's about time we had some luck isn't it?

However, Strachan seems to think that Rob Edwards' sending off was down to his side rather than Stephen Crainey stitching his team mate up good and proper - what planet is he on?!

'It was only in the second half we turned them and made them defend and that's why they got a man sent off', Strachan said.

Lastly, he moaned about his team's wastefulness infront of goal.

'We had chances galore and couldn't take them,' he said.

Now correct me if I'm wrong again, but bar the penalty save and a save in the first half, Matt Gilks has hardly had to exert himself has he? Indeed, the match stats show that the 'Pool had more shots on target than their visitors and the same number of shots over all.

I think all that remains to be said is: cheers for the six points Gordon. 5-0 on aggregate over the season shows who the better team are. Deal with it.

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