We picked up our train at East Croydon and then everything ran smooothly, arriving into Blackpool just before midday (our mates had started on the 5.40 bus from Brighton to Three Bridges so it was already a long day).
The long journey was passed with help from a mate called Strongbow, once in Blackpool we dodged the Hen night made up of a group of girls who all looked 12 years old, overtook the 10 year old mothers pushing twins about, and the 9 year old chavs smoking and swilling cans of special brew, god Blackpool is a pit!
We headed for a real ale pub called the Churchill, been there a few times before, but this time the clientel were very weird. As Liz said the blokes were increibly ugly, it was like the regulars that you find in Weathersoops at 10am, but slighlty down market.
We decided to move on as soon as we could. We missed the pub where Stella Artois would be performing her strip show at 1pm and headed to the Pump and Truncheon which is probably one of the better pubs in Blackpool.
The landlord sorted out a minibus taxi for us to the ground for us at 2.30 and we arrived outside the ground at 2.40, so popped into the workings mans club on the corner.
You had to be a member of a club to get in so I signed in as a member of the same club as the bloke in front of me. One mate got confused and when asked for the 3rd time what club he was with just said "Brighton" and walked in. We just had time for one finaly swift pint and then it was into the ground.
A good turnout of probably around 500 (hard to tell in that stand and as it wasnt open all the way along). The home stands were packed and it was a much much bigger crowd than I expected.
The game to me was the complete reversal of Crewe in that Blackpool were the team pressing for a win, we could have stolen the 3 points but Jake Robinsons shot was superbly pushed round the post by the keeper after a fantastic long run from deep inside his own half by Savage.
It was very windy, blustery conditions and to be honest we played very little football. Flinders made several fine saves again, and Lynch and Butters both gave great performances once again in testing conditions.
I was suprised when Savage was subbed and O'Cearuill replaced him, a defensive move with 20 minutes left? Anyway a point was gladly taken and then it was another 6 hours on the trains before arriving back to three bridges at midnight.
We left 2 mates looking for rail replacement buses to Brighton and 2 for one to Eastbourne! Hope they finally got home!
Flinders - 9 my MOTM as made several good saves
El-Abd - 7 solid
Mayo - 7 looked to try and keep the ball on the floor
Lynch - 8 superb player
Butters -8 another solid game
Bertin - 7 sign him up sign him up sign him up
Hammond - 7 kept running and running
Robinson - 6 not involved enough - shows flashes of brilliance
Cox - 6 in and out the game
Savage - 5 poor match, we didnt threaten at all
Revell - 5 poor match, no link between the front 2
O'Cearuill - 7 look confortable when we were under pressure
Elder - 6 only got 10 minutes, perhaps deserves a start?
Kuipers, Ward and Hart unused