Blackpool v PNE: Minute-By-Minute
Blackpool v PNE
Bloomfield Road
Coca-Cola Championship
Monday 30th November 8pm kick-off
Final Score: Blackpool 1 Preston 1 (Clarke 1; Wallace 38)
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90+5 min: Frantic stuff at both ends of the field but no real end product and the referee blows the full-time whistle to bring the game to a close.
90+3 min: Eddie Nolan has done well in the centre of defence but he almost sees that undone as he hesitates in the box with the ball at his feet and Bouazza steals in. The angle is tight though and the former Watford and Fulham man smashes the ball over the bar.
90+2 min: Bouazza is the first to have a chance, smashing a shot which Lonergan appeared to see late. The crowd give a big 'OOOH' as it flies just a yard wide.
90 min: We are going to have a total of five added minutes at Bloomfield. Enough time to boil an egg but will see a goal?
86 min: North End send Elliott on for Neil Mellor. Tangerines make a sub sending on Barry Bannan for Charlie Adam.
84 min: The 'Beast' Jon Parkin come on for Chris Brown. Preston are going for it now.
80 min: Chaplow sees a shot eight yards out blocked after Parry had sent a clever ball into the box. Blackpool attempt to launch a quick counterattack but Euell is well offside when the ball is played and the linesman's flag... eventually goes up.
76 min: It's the North End fans who think they have scored this time. Jones sends a cross in from the right and Chris Sedgwick nods one across goal, from the angle the PNE fans will have seen it from it will have looked closer than it actually was.
72 min: Paul Parry creates a great opportunity for North End. He anticipated the ball over the top of the full-back and he was away, taking the ball to the touchline before cutting the ball back into the path of an unmarked Mellor. The Preston striker is there but his sidefooted effort clears the crossbar.
67 min: Ross Wallace is doing a great job winding the home fans up. He's picked up an injury and he wants treatment on the pitch, the ref won't allow it though so Wallace is forced to hobble off the field to be replaced by Paul Parry. Boos from the home fans, applause from the away fans in the Gene Kelly Stand.
63 min: Eddie Nolan with a run down the middle of the pitch, its St. Ledgeresque and as he gets into dangerous territory he is clipped from behind by Billy Clarke. It earns him a yellow card.
60 min: First change of the night. Ben Burgess is replaced by Jason Euell.
55 min: Blackpool immediately launch a counter-attack and Ben Burgess is guilty again of missing an absolute howler. He looked a mile offside from Billy Clarke's cross but there was no flag and the big striker somehow contrived to miss from seven yards out.
54 min: Chaplow breaks the offside trap and he's clean through on goal. He hesitates though, perhaps not believing his luck and that moment sees the ball just get too far ahead of him. He goes 50-50 with Gilks the Blackpool keeper and the keeper wins the battle.
52 min: Blackpool fans think they have scored. Bouazza bundles his way through challenges on the edge of the box and toe-pokes one at goal. It beats Lonergan and looks to have made the net bulge, but it had actually found the sidenetting. Blackpool fans rise in celebration, it's one of those classic moments where the away fans get to taunt their opposite number as they mock Blackpool's celebrations.
50 min: Ross Wallace and Stephen Crainey square up to each other. Wallace looked to have been fouled but it wasn't given by the ref and then the Blackpool players try and claim that Wallace was diving.
48 min: Another reprieve for North End. Lonergan's clearance is straight to a Blackpool man, who feeds Ben Burgess, the home team have men over but Burgess opts to shoot and sends a weak shot straight at Lonners who saves comfortably. The home crowd are not pleased as that chance goes begging.
46 min: First chance of the second half goes the way of Blackpool. Charlie Adam surges onto a flick on from Ben Burgess, he's into the box but he smashes the ball over the crossbar from 12 yards out.
2106: Back underway at Bloomfield and no changes.
2103: A quick 'well done' to North End's ticket office staff who have managed to raise in excess of £500 for Children In Need by walking to tonight's match in four hours and 45 minutes. Added to that a member of the PNE Media team getting his body waxed for Children in Need and the club have raised more than £750 in total. I don't know what is more painful, bilsters or no whiskers!
2059: The general consensus in the press-box is that tonight's match is a tactical battle more than anything else. North End trying to combat Blackpool's 4-3-3 formation which at times means that Neil Mellor is being forced into a left midfield role as Alan Irvine's men revert to a 4-5-1 formation.
2055: The Norman Collier tannoy man has just enlightened us all to some 'excitement in the tunnel' as the teams went back into the dressing room.
2050: It's half-time here. An absolutely pulsating opening 45 minutes. Bags of chances and in fairness 1-1 is probably a fair relection of the action.
45 min: The fourth official indicates three minutes of added time.
42 min: Blackpool thunder a strike against the crossbar from 25-yards out, Billy Clarke smashing a shot from nothing to hit the woodwork. It rebounds out and Eddie Nolan cool as an Irish cucumber nods the ball into the hands of Lonergan.
38 min: GOAL FOR PRESTON!!!!!! Ross Wallace scores a trademark free kick from 20 yards out into the top right corner to make it 1-1. Brown was brought down on the edge of the box for the free kick, and Wallace made no mistake. The 1700 North End fans are jumping with delight at the sight of the net bulging. Wallace's celebration in front of the fans earns him a booking. It's a little harsh on Ross, he remained on the pitch but the PNE fans actually came on to celebrate with him, not much the diminutive Scotsman could have done about it.
37 min: Billy Jones is pulled up for what looked like a clean tackle by the referee. Marcel Seip heads it back into the middle and goalscorer Billy Clarke pokes it widefor the home side.
35 min: Neil Mellor is hacked down on the left, but Wallace can't find a Preston head with the resulting free kick and Blackpool clear again.
34 min: Tonge again, this time with a shot from the right which is well held by Gilks. Charlie Adam then goes up the other end and causes North End all kinds of problems. Thankfully Nolan and Collins manage to get it clear between them.
33 min: Michael Tonge trieds to engineer an opening with a cross with his right foot. He can't quite find Chris Brown though and Blackpool scramble it clear.
22 min: A brief lull in play before Blackpool have another great chance. Clarke spotted Charlie Adam free on the left and he had time to hit a shot-cum-cross across the face of goal, it went inches wide of the post and just did enough to evade the despairing leg of the Blackpool man who arrived late to try and poke it home.
18 min: Andy Lonergan is called into action again. Neil Mellor defending very deep to mark the Blackpool full-back who is pushing forward and he loses the ball in front of his own goal. Charlie Adam surges in and smashes a low shot that might have creeped inside the near post had Lonergan not tipped it wide.
14 min: Billy Jones receives an early card for a late clip from Hameur Bouazza. From the resultant free-kick Ben Burgess gets on the end of a flick on and sends a wild volley over the crossbar.
13 min: A corner to Blackpool and Lonergan is shunted off the ball by a Blackpool challenge. No whistle from the referee though and the Lilywhites survive as a Tangerine shirt blasts the ball over the bar from yards out.
11 min: North End have Lonergan to thank for the score only being 1-0. Billy Clarke received the ball from Adam with his back to goal, turned and spun with a shot and thankfully the ball was straight into the keeper's breadbasket.
10 min: Since that Blackpool goal its all been North End. Really decent pressure from Alan Irvine's side. They just need a break in front of goal.
6 min: Chaplow with a surging run into the box, not one Blackpool man can get near him, he looks to pull the trigger from 12 yards out before a timely Blackpool leg takes the ball away for a corner.
5 min: Preston North End have a great chance to get themselves back into the game. Wallace has started out on the right flank and he received a ball in space from Chaplow, cut inside his marker and drilled a shot towards the far corner. Gilks parried it away, and Davidson sent the ball back into the mixer and Mellor spun to power a shot just a yard or so over the bar.
3 min: Blackpool are the second best team in the Championship at scoring first in a game and the Lilywhites have paid against that statistic!
1 min: Goal!!! We are underway and North End concede a goal in less than 30 seconds!!! Billy Clarke wins a ball in the centre of the park before taking the ball towards goal and curling an effort from 25-yards beyond Andy Lonergan. Disasterous start for the Lilywhites.
2000: We are just about to have a minute's applause for former Blackpool and Preston player Ray Charnley. This clapping is actually keeping my hands warm.
1958: A cracking atmosphere here. The two teams are out on the pitch and both sets of fans are really raising the noise levels.
1955: The Norman Collier impersanator on the microphone is rather excitable which means that the two teams are probably on their way out of the tunnel.
1953: My colleague Jonny Lally has just spotted a Blackpool fan with a painted face and a t-shirt with his own face on it? They are rather strange around here!
1951: Less than ten minutes till kick-off. 'I Predict A Riot' is being played on the tannoy system, maybe not the best choice of song in the circumstances. Hopefully it will be riotous fun and nothing else.
1947: Blackpool's flag is out. It's big and orange. North End have unfurled another flag which is equally as big but more impressive, a white and blue number with the letters PNE and that famous badge.
1945: The guy on the mike is trying his best to rouse a slumbersome home support. He's not being helped by a dodgy microphone which is making him sound like Norman Collier. He'd be best suited to to doing a comedy act on the pier. Blackpool also have a drummer, which seems to help the locals remember the words to their songs.
1940: Across from me is the Gene Kelly Stand which hold the 1700 hardy North End souls who have made the short journey. As I write there is a large flag being unfurled and the bouncing, seething mass of Prestonnorthendification is now being covered up by a big picture of Sir Tom Finney - PRESTON LEGEND.
1936: Blackpool's much maligned facilities are coming in for a bit of light-hearted stick once again. The lack of a press room serving warm pies, hot drinks and refuge is not to be seen and for that reason we cannot update you on the state of the culinary delights Blackpool can offer. I got a waft of fried onions and hotdogs as I entered the stadium, but that's a smell you get any day of the week in Blackpool.
1934: I am going to continue typing, if only to keep the blood running through my digits. The thermals seem to be doing the job on the rest of my body so far. I'm also sporting a big daft hat which whilst keeping my ears warmish, is also cutting out most of this electric atmosphere.
1928: I can tell you that the conditions at Bloomfield Road are very chilly. I keep having to break off from typing to warm my little fingers up. Other than the cold though the weather is perfect for a good keep of football. Not a breath of wind in the air, no rain and the playing surface looks in great condition.
1926: It's a big night for Eddie. He's waited a long time for his chance at centre-half after deputising at left-back for much of his short Deepdale career.
1925: So a couple of changes for North End with Eddie Nolan slotting in at centre-half to replace the injured Youl Mawene and Ross Wallace returns on the left wing with Paul Parry making way.
Blackpool: Gilks, Crainey, Southern, Evatt, Clarke, Burgess, Vaughan, Baptiste, Bouazza, Adam, Seip. Subs: Rachubka, Eardley, Ormerod, Taylor-Fletcher, Euell, Edwards, Banner.
PNE: Lonergan, Jones, Nolan, Collins, Davidson, Sedgwick, Chaplow, Tonge, Wallace, Brown, Mellor. Subs: Henderson, Hart, Parry, Carter, Shumulikoski, Elliott, Parkin.
1906: So we have made into enemy territory. Ice cold temperatures ensured that our thick wooly hat disguises did not look out of place. We are wrapped up warm against the elements hoping to be warmed by some fiery, passionate football.
