Before
After Sunday's sobering experience I'm looking forward to some seasonal cheer from today's match. It's 1.45 and the team news is still all ifs and buts though it seems certain that both Welbeck and Cattermole will return. Of course I'd love to see Bramble back too but it's looking like he'll have to wait till the Blackburn game. Blackpool have brought a lot of pleasure to neutrals so far and have made a comparative little, certainly in the financial sense, go a long way. They've done well away from home while our home record is impressive so maybe a draw would be a good bet but I'm not going for that and think we'll win it, 3-1. I'm sure they're going to miss Adam, who's suspended, but D.J. Campbell will be a one to watch as those of us who saw him sink us in the cup at Brentford will remember all too well. Gyan and Bent both had their worst performances in a Sunderland shirt on Sunday and let's hope they can put that to rights today.

The Game
I was between shifts at work and tuned into live commentary on the internet. The first thing I heard was Blackpool's Ghanaian goalie Kingson nearly gift us a goal and that sounded promising. Meyler was back in, so with him and Catts in midfield we certainly wouldn't be lacking any bite. Our first real chance came after ten minutes when Bent's shot from Welbeck's pass went just wide. A couple of our promising moves ended in an offside flag but apart from that there was little to report until Grandin was injured and had to be replaced by Phillips. Bent, Gyan and especially Welbeck were sounding lively and as the midway point passed I felt a goal coming. We went close when Gyan hit the side-netting from an acute angle and then Henderson burst through but his chip went over. Blackpool retaliated and D.J. Campbell should really have scored but mercifully didn't. Onuoha was struggling and Titus got a great ovation as he made an earlier than anticipated return with fifteen minutes to go. Bent went close again following another link-up with Welbeck and soon Welbeck himself was punching the ground in frustration as he just failed to connect. Then at the other end Campbell breezed past a couple of our defenders and shot just wide. Chances kept coming our way, the best of which fell to Gyan in the final minute, but we were unable to make the most of any of them and so at the break it remained 0-0. I was confident that we'd finally break our duck in the second-half.

We started off in a similar vein with another chance by Gyan going wide but a minute later Campbell put them one-up following a short corner. It was looking bleak for us as Blackpool started to take over in midfield but we tried to rectify this when Richardson came on for Meyler. Blackpool looked the likelier side to score and went close following another corner. Gyan was replaced by Steed with twenty-five minutes to go and we certainly needed some sparkle. Steed produced our best shot for ages but Kingson saved well and it looked like nothing was going to go in for us. There was a moment of humour when Henderson was tackled by the corner-flag but there was precious little else to smile about as we struggled to get anything together. We repeatedly failed to make an accurate final pass while our defence sounded wobbly whenever Campbell's name was mentioned. After looking a liability earlier on Kingson suddenly started to play a blinder, which was all we needed. In the closing minute Campbell put them 2-0 up from close range and that was that.

So, it ended 0-2 and we hardly deserved more as we squandered loads of chances while Blackpool knew how to take theirs. This was a big disappointment and we sorely need to make up for it on Saturday against Blackburn, who of course, have suddenly decided to find a bit of form.

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