The Blackpool Sentinel
Match23 Dec 2028
No mercy from Blackpool
Barnet will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Blackpool were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market25 Dec 2028
Leighton Clarkson puts it in writing
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Blackpool, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
A brace, and Dale Taylor takes the afternoon — 8.92
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dale Taylor provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Ibrahim Mbaye, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.06
A mark of 8.06 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Age has not caught Charlie Taylor yet — 8.10
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match23 Dec 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Blackpool and Barnet in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The terraces25 Dec 2028
Blackpool supporters have found a favourite in Joshua Ajala
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Joshua Ajala has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match19 Dec 2028
Charlie Taylor sends Blackpool past Newport County
It finished 2‑0, and it was Charlie Taylor’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Blackpool.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
A masterclass from Josh Bowler
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
- The dugout The manager makes an example of Cristhian Medina
- Squad Harry Quinn in a row with a teammate
- The terraces The away end at Newport County goes home happy