One Year on and Oh so different!

Looking back at this game really does show the giant strides Larry and the whole club has taken since. Saturday December 10th 2005 saw Blackpool and Tranmere battle out a dire 1-1 draw, with Pool having to rely on Captain Fantastic Peter Clarke to come up with something special in the last minute to rescue a point. The game was played in front of just over 5,000 fans on a ploughing field, with the North stand chanting for Karl Oyston's head (well some things never change!).

The Pool line up that afternoon was as follows:

Jones
Warrender
Clarke
Edwards
Coid
Morris
Harkins
Southern
Wilcox
Murphy
Parker

Subs -
Butler
Wiles
Pogliacomi
Wright
Blinkhorn

Yes, it really was that bad! Jason Wilcox roaming down the left wing oozing genuine class! I think it's fair to say Larry's team on Saturday will be very different. How can we even compare the likes of Wilcox to Hoolahan or Warrender to Barker?

Incidentally, that 1-1 stalemate at Bloomers back in late 2005 left Pool languishing in 21st place with Tranmere not looking much better in 19th. Had you told both sets of fans that they would be challenging for promotion to the Championship 12 months later they might well have packed you off on the next train to the Loony Bin! In fact most supporters would have taken just being in League 1 for this season. I think that game last season really is the perfect example of just how bad things were in the early post Hendry era, whilst it illustrates the miracles that Larry has conjured up (along with a few Bob from Mr. Belokon!) to transform us into genuine promotion favourites.

Fingers crossed that the rest of this already hugely successful season goes according to plan (ie, we make the play offs and send Oldham and Wellens packing at Wembley). And if we do happen to miss out on promotion, don't let's be too dispondent, after all, it could have been a whole lot worse had things not improved last year!

Up the Pool!
Championship with Latvian Cash!

By tangerinelordy