Blackpool Mechanics 5-0 Cheadle Town

The sandcastles that Cheadle had built over the past couple of matches were crudely kicked down by Blackpool Mechanics as the seasiders ran riot with five goals in the second half.

Surveying our surroundings and with the wind and rain swirling around his ears before the match, Polardin suddenly had an attack of the sixth senses: "I've got a feeling we're gonna get beat about five-nil today...don't know why".

For 50 minutes of the match Polardin's clairvoyancy looked unlikely. The first-half of the match was like watching Dancing On Ice as both teams struggled to gain any lengthy and meaningful control of the ball; the greasy surface ruining the on-floor play and the swirling winds doing the same for any airborne balls.

Mechs were forcing most of the issue for the first 30 minutes of the match and kept Cheadle's defence busy, without carving out any real clear-cut chances. On the turn of the half-hour it was Cheadle's turn to dominate play: Mike Myers' shot on 33 minutes had the unfortune to strike Scott Flanagan's head on the way and go wide, with the latter going just wide with his own chance seven minutes later.

Ironically, when the sunshine came out for the second-half, Cheadle's game imploded. Ten minutes into the restart, Steve Moores pushed out a Mechs freekick but could do nothing about preventing their No.9 gobbling up the rebound.

Within the next twenty minutes the match was put completely out of Cheadle's reach. A cross in from the left was turned home on the hour mark and then on 73 minutes a cross from the right struck the heels of one of Cheadle's defenders, falling nicely for a Mechs striker to blast home.

With the match lost, Cheadle's match fell into farce just two minutes later. A long pass that was going nowhere bounced over Steve Moores' head and into the net: one of those "what happened next?" moments. Mechs turned the victory into a hammering with the last action of the match with a header from a yard out.

Based on their second-half performance you can't deny Blackpool Mechanics their three points, thus continuing their excellent run of form at the moment. But five-nil seems a bit...well...odd, as most of the goals were probably preventable....

Pictures from the day can be seen by clicking here

TEAM: Moores, Clarke, B Roberts, Cotterill, A Roberts, Brocklehurst, Riley, Hussain, Flanagan, Myers (Brokenbrow), Buchanan (Bennett). Subs: Brokenbrow, Bennett

Saturday's Opponents: Blackpool Mechanics

Not the end-of-the-season jamboree we were hoping for on April 26th; fixture-faffage has taken care of that and has sent us, albeit prematurely, to Jepson Way at the beginning of March.

Ever since Mechs walked away from Park Road with a 2-1 victory at the turn of the new year they have been on a rare run which has seen them storm up to 5th place; their only (narrow) defeat came at the hands of Div 2 runaway leaders New Mills.

Cheadle should have a few more players trickling back into contention for this one as suspensions start to expire, thus maximising the chance of extending the current run to three consecutive victories...and making Trevor's target of a top-ten finish that more realistic.

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside? Come on Cheadle!

Cheadle Town 1-2 Blackpool Mechanics

A last-minute goal kept up Blackpool Mechanics' decent away record and condemned Cheadle Town to their third consecutive defeat.

Cheadle Town were back to full-strength, a matter that was shown by the number of chances that they managed to garner throughout the game. The first of these fell on the 11th minute when Arron Riley latched onto a flick and bore down on goal only to see his effort superbly saved by the Mechs' 'keeper.

Arron had another carbon-copy chance saved on 27 minutes and then proved instrumental in Cheadle's opener just a minute later. Andy Lindon seized on a poor goal-kick and lofted the ball into the box for Arron who just managed to beat the 'keeper to the ball and poke it around him; with the 'keeper somewhat stranded Arron kept his cool to pop the ball into the box for Deano to volley home from two yards out.

Before half-time Blackpool started to haul themselves back into the match. On 44 minutes their big lummox No.9 flew a shot just across the face of Mellor's posts. Half-time, 1-0 to Cheadle.

The second half got off to a blistering start with Cheadle having a glorious chance to extend their lead; how Arron Riley, Carl Buchanan and Deano didn't manage to make more of the three-on-one opportunity they had will probably still be haunting them now. Just two minutes later and Blackpool blasted a great chance over the bar from just six yards out.

Blackpool's eventual victory could be granted to their 'keeper as he superbly kept out Carl Buchanan and Deano with fingertip saves. His efforts were to be rewarded on 67 minutes as the visitors' ever-increasing graft got themselves level. A cross from the right was buried past Mellor's outstretched left arm.

After that, Cheadle's chances simply dried up. Blackpool kept applying the pressure, should have gone 2-1 up on 80 minutes when twqo of their forwards only had Mellor to beat and then eventually did go 2-1 up with just a minute remaining when two of their forwards beat an offside claim, leaving one of them all the time in the world to lash a left-footed shot past Mellor.

Today's defeat was made worse by seeing Carl Buchanan being carried off with suspected knee ligament damage (pictured below). We wish him a speedy recovery.


Cheadle had their chances to put this game out of sight today but found themselves in wasteful mood. One positive from the day was seeing the squad back to full-strength...and being able to get home an hour earlier than usual. I could get used to these 2pm kick-offs....

Pictures from today can be seen by clicking here

TEAM: Mellor, Heath, B Roberts, Cotterill, A Roberts, Brocklehurst, Riley, MacDonald, Lindon, Martin, Buchanan (Hussain). Subs: Myers, Hussain, Flanagan

Saturday's Opponents: Blackpool Mechanics

Blackpool Mechanics...now let me think. I'm going to have to delve deep into the recesses of my memory as it has been absolutely bloody ages since I saw Cheadle Town pit their footballing wits against them.

A season-and-a-half ago as it turns out as they were one of our first opponents at home (a 1-1 draw) at the start of last season and neither Polardin or I made the 0-1 defeat at the seaside in the reverse fixture.

Hopefully we will see the return of the midfield that we had to do without (and painfully missed) at Chadderton last Saturday as the Mechs' away record this season ain't that bad; of their nine away matches they have only failed to score twice and have only been defeated twice and all. We currently find them in 8th place, some nine points ahead.

If a top-ten finish is our aim for this season, then we have a great chance of making progress on that front as this is the first of three consecutive league matches at Park Road...and a maximum haul of nine points could put us on some sort of positional par as our opponents this Saturday.

Come on Cheadle!

Oh, by the way, if you're thinking of coming along to this one then it's a 2.00pm kick-off. I would dearly love to say that this is because we're live on Sky or Setanta, but the real reason is a bit more prosaic: it looks like our floodlights still aren't behaving themselves and thus the early kick-off gives us chance to play the game out before we lose daylight. Does anybody know a good electrician...?

Blackpool Mechanics 1-0 Cheadle Town...and Weekend Round-Up

Right, let's have a look at what's been happening.

Neither of us were at the Blackpool - Cheadle match [Polardin, did you end up going in the end? You haven't replied to my texts!] but according to Steve Brok', assistant manager, Cheadle were unlucky and "missed six good chances, whilst Blackpool scored with their only one - we paid the price for not putting ours away". So, that's the micro-run brought to a shuddering halt.

Elsewhere it was the quarter-finals of the Division Two trophy. This Saturday's opponents Oldham Town picked up a 2-1 win at Chadderton in the derby match, New Mills wasted Holker 3-1 at home whilst Winsford United and Ashton Town will have to do it all again as their match was abandoned because of the fog. The remaining quarter-final was played on Friday night; a last-minute winner giving Bootle a 2-1 win at home to Runcorn Linnets.

Only another three matches were played out. Leek CSOB nudged themselves up to fifth with a 3-1 win at Ashton Athletic, Eccleshall and Padiham saw out a 1-1 in the towards-the-top-of-the-table clash, whilst Darwen were stunned 3-2 away to Norton United after being 2-0 up at one point.

Our very own Cheadle Town are still 13th with 22 points.

For the insomniacs out there, it's the Superbowl tonight. I always try and watch it right the way through but never manage to get past the second quarter. Time to start hitting the coffee....

Tomorrow's Opponents: Blackpool Mechanics

This was supposed to be the "big day out" where the boys-from-the-blog spent a day in the North West's less salubrious, now casino-less coastal town, taking in the delights of the Pleasure Beach n' that and also cheering the Cheadle boys on in the compassionate warmth of end-March.

Alas, the ever-shifting sands of fixture changes in the NWCFL has put paid to that; my Premiership duties mean that Polardin will have to go it alone in the less-forgiving cold air of February.

Anyhow, onto the football. The 9th of September was the last time we played Blackpool in a 1-1 draw; Brocky scoring one of those freak goals and 'Mechs equalising with not-very-long to go.

After starting strongly, Blackpool Mechanics are now only two points and two places ahead of Cheadle Town but have played five games less; the fact that they haven't won since Boxing Day is down to games being abandoned and postponed more than aything else.

In Cheadle's favour is Blackpool's rather ropey form at Jepson Way - of the nine games they have played at home, they have only collected maximum points in two of them (against Ashton Athletic and Holker). Can Cheadle take advantage and extend their unbeaten run to five?

Come on Cheadle!

Cheadle Town 1-1 Blackpool Mechanics

Cheadle Town stood five minutes away from a deserved victory yesterday as Blackpool Mechanics took a share of the spoils to keep their unbeaten run in tact.

We were almost back to full-strength as we saw the return of Deano, Brocky, Johnny Hussain, Barry Cotterill et al; Lindon has still got one match to serve of his suspension. The football that brought Cheadle their early-season victories was back and all and was a joy to watch at times. Deano struck the post after a turn and shot and a delicious cross from the right just failed to get a connection from Vinny Braine. It was somewhat ironic, then, that Cheadle's goal was a complete fluke; Brocky sailing a speculative cross-cum-shot from 30 yards that caught the Mechs 'keeper cold.

Mechs made more of a nuisance of themselves after the break and had more of the possession in the early stages of the second half. With a team that looked as though it had an average height of 6 foot 8, their threat was always going to be from crosses and corners; CTFC had to work hard to keep them at bay from set pieces. As Mechs pressed for a foothold in the game, Cheadle went in for the kill and had plenty of chances of their own; the crossbar was rattled on one occasion...can't remember by who, though!

Alas, Cheadle's failure to kill Mechs off would haunt them with five minutes to go. There was a bit of a scramble after another set-piece was whipped in and in a flash the ball had been bundled into the back of the net. After being caught out by Brocky's effort, the Mechs 'keeper was the most relieved, which was evident in his shout of "'ave it!" over to the CTFC bench.

As the final whistle went, Trevor let out an anguished cry as he knew as well as us that this felt like two points lost rather than one point gained.

Pictures from the day can be seen by clicking here.

Tomorrow's Opponents: Blackpool Mechanics

Blackpool Mechanics come to Park Road tomorrow bearing the proud honour of being the only second division team with a 100% record: played 3, won 3. This is a continuation of their strong second half of last season where they suffered only one defeat in the first four months of 2006. We were told at the beginning of the season by a member of CTFC staff (forget who it was now) to "look out for Blackpool Mechs this year"; going off their start to the season, looks like they could be right.

Cheadle, on the other hand, would dearly love to put things right after last week's 0-6 indecent assault in Alsager and would welcome a win with open arms. What better way to do it than to soil a visiting team's thus far unstained league campaign?

One last thing. In fear of encouraging Polardin to blog about the colour orange or the citrus fruit, can somebody answer me this? What is it about the town of Blackpool and the colour orange? Blackpool FC play in orange shirts; the Blackpool town coat of arms has orange in it; I'm sure their rugby league team played in orange and look at the Blackpool mechs badge. Orange.

And whilst I'm at it, ditto Warrington and it's link with yellow and blue.

Match "report" and pictures won't materialise until Sunday evening (oh, I'm sure you can wait). Enjoy the match!