Burscough 0-4 Blackpool

The first pre-season friendly saw Ian Holloway`s Tangerine army, produce a four nil win over the home side, Burscough. Approximately 250 Blackpool fan`s travelled down to see Gary Taylor-Fletcher`s two well finished goals and second half goals from Brett Ormerod and Daniel Nardiello win this pre-season opener. As expected Holloway changed teams, first half team Paul Rachubka lined up before a back four of Danny Coid, Ian Evatt, Alex Baptiste and Stephen Crainey, Keith Southern and David Vaughan provided the midfield two, Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Billy Clarke initially operated as the wide men, Ben Burgess operated as the front man with Danny Mitchley in the hole off Burgess.

Mitchley saw two clear chances in the first 10minutes of the game, but wasn`t brave enough to shoot from outside the box. The next few minutes saw Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Ben Burgess work well together producing a lot of chances down the middle of play. The first real chance saw Ben Burgess produce a graceful cross to Mitchley that floated down to his feet, but as he turned the ball bobbled before he could produce a dominant shot and it saw the ball fly past the post. The clock hit 20 minutes and the two key players so far were Vaughan and Clarke, both picking up the ball and moving well with it producing so amazing play. A few minutes later saw Burgess get in front of his marker and powered a volley wide from the goal.

The first goal came at 27 minutes as Clarke skinned his marker and saw him running down the wing, crossing the ball to the centre of the box, where Gary Taylor-Fletcher was waiting making an easy header over the top of the advancing keeper.

Gary Taylor-Fletcher made it two after a few minutes from his first goal. A quick kick from Paul Rachubka, saw the ball go over the Burscough defenders where Gary Taylor-Fletcher ran through the defence collecting the ball. He made mince meat of the defenders as he cut across three and firing at the top corner of the net, making it two nil.
Gary Taylor-Fletcher could have been taking the match ball home, after his powerful header 5 yards from the goal, saw Whiteside quick reactions get finger tips to the ball knocking it away. Minutes later we heard Holloway telling Mitchley and Clarke to swap sides showing his confidence of making decisions; which Tony seemed without. This decision was right as we saw Clarke putting a through ball to Keith Southern, whose quick feet saw him running towards goal and taking a hard low shot inch`s from goal. The first half was up and Blackpool did well, dominating most of the game.

The second half saw Pool line up with Matt Gilks in goal, a back four of Ash Eastham, Shaun Barker, Rob Edwards, Joe Martin, a midfield two of Richard Langley and Irish trialist Eoin Duffy, American trialist Eric DeFreitas and Danny Nardiello provide the width with second year scholar Louis Almond and Brett Ormerod operating as the Pool front two.
The second half team, worked well together nearly making it three nil after Daniel Nardiello header was knocked over the bar. Nardiello did well down the left wing, producing numerous crosses to Ormerod who couldn`t see, to get his shots through the mass defending from Burscough. Ormerod made amends a minute later, Eric DeFreitas found Daniel Nardiello out on the left, Nardiello in turn found Ormerod in the left channel and the veteran striker fired home from an acute angle.

The back four were playing a solid game, seeing no Burscough attacks get through, this showed as Gilks only made two saves on the 80 minute dot. Eastham, who saw a lot of the ball in the defence, was producing long crosses over the top through to Ormerod and Almond. Almond is a key player to watch, his fast speed caused Burscough trouble.

Daniel Nardiello almost made it 4-0 eight minutes from time, he set off fast down the left wing from a great ball from Richard Langley, Nardiello was keen to get his name on the goal sheet as he went pass five players but was denied by a brave block from the keeper. Minutes later saw Adam Foster given seven minutes of play to show Holloway he was good enough who made a high-quality shot on goal but was saved. Moments later with minutes to go, saw a header from Nardiello hit the back of the net which Langley crossed.

All in the entire match was a good chance to look at a few players. Almond is a key player to watch out for, as with DeFreitas with his hard working effort. Man of the match should got to Vaughan as he`s picking up the ball was excellent and was able to get through gaps through the defence.

Pool First Half: Rachubka, Coid, Baptiste, Evatt, Crainey, Southern, Vaughan, Mitchley, Taylor-Fletcher, Clarke, Burgess
Pool Second Half: Gilks, Eastham, Barker, Edwards, Martin, Langley, DeFreitas, Duffy (Foster 83), Nardiello, Ormerod, Almond