Video FA CUP Fleetwood Town 1 - 5 Blackpool

Matt Phillips’ hat-trick restored a sense of natural order on the Fylde peninsula, as Blackpool delivered a slick Championship performance to swat aside this Fleetwood team, their upwardly-mobile adversaries from the Blue Square Premier.

To call the dynamic between Fleetwood and Blackpool a rivalry would be a stretch, given that the clubs had not played each other since 1980. And for an hour the home side, who have achieved five promotions in 11 years, held their own with assurance, falling behind to Lomano LuaLua’s 24th-minute strike but appearing menacing on the break. Striker Jamie Vardy, in particular, was outstanding, a constant thorn to Blackpool’s well-marshalled back line and a player sure to attract interest from higher divisions.

It was no less than Vardy’s tenacity merited when he pounced with a second-half goal, although the air had escaped from Fleetwood’s challenge by then. Phillips second deflated the 4,000-plus fans from this once thriving port town, and the self-styled ‘Cod Army’ were baited by Blackpool supporters throughout with chants of ‘You only sing when you’re fishing’.

There was a fleeting moment of alarm early for Fleetwood, when goalkeeper Scott Davies spilt a low drive from Matt Phillips. But they refused to be cowed, with one ball that struck Jamie Vardy on the shoulder looping only fractionally over the bar.

Blackpool’s breakthrough, when it came, looked effortless in its simplicity.

An elegant pass-and-move sequence, beginning in their own right-back position, culminated in a crisp ball over the top from Bob Harris, who set up LuaLua to lash a finish beyond Davies. The somersaulting celebrations that LuaLua had patented during his time at Newcastle and Portsmouth were duly unleashed with gusto.

Fleetwood had not risen from non-league oblivion to second place in the Blue Square Premier by accident, though, and fashioned some elegant play on the counter-attack. Andrew Mangan found his snap effort thwarted by the assured Mark Howard, while Vardy, ever lively, had to watch a shot on the turn saved.

Gradually, the crowd became galvanised - in large part to Micky Mellon, their irrepressible manager, who at one stage rushed on to the pitch to kick the ball back to his players before falling flat on his backside.

Ian Hollway, acclaimed as ‘Olly Mourinho’ by his own fans, was equally influential in urging Blackpool forward, and his words were heeded when Phillips, cutting in from the left, angled an exquisite strike into the far top corner of the net. When Thomas Ince engineered a third, sweeping the ball home from Neil Eardley’s cross, the outcome looked settled.

And yet Fleetwood, and Vardy, still found the resolve to register the goal their work ethic had warranted. Played in on the left, he struck a neat left-foot shot firmly to Howard’s left to elicit raptures in the Memorial Stand. The comeback was definitively punctured when Phillips let fly with a volley on the counter, before embarking on an impressive solo run to tee up the poked finish that completed his treble.



szólj hozzá: Fletwood vs Blackpool 1:5 (FA)