So a few players are beginning to climb through the transfer window after it has flapped temptingly in the breeze these past few weeks. Man City are throwing huge fees at players they could get for nowt in the summer (de Jong) as the rest of the game bides its time. Apparently, we’re looking at five players, and don’t expect to get them all. Not all of them will be Danny Shittu. No comment.

Sixty years ago, Yeovil became the Blyth Spartans of the day when they beat none other than Sunderland, and they’re having a celebratory dinner. I can’t imagine there will be many of those who played that day present, but good luck to them. I hear that Monty and little Bobby are going, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Cec, as a former manager of theirs, has a bag of crisps with his name on it.

Despite the reserves losing to the Mags on Wednesday, a bright thing to emerge was that Chops was withdrawn from that squad, meaning a decent run out on Saturday – and McCartney is at last back, albeit on the bench. As we line up against Rovers for the fourth time in as many months, the players should be first-name terms with their opponents. Actually, they probably should be anyway, or perhaps nickname terms at least. How many first-teamers Fat Sam plays is open to question, but we could well hear Jaso, Benners, Derbyshir-oh, Khizanishvillers, and all manner of ridiculous monikers shouted out as the game progresses.

Despite the cheap tickets, I didn’t expect a decent crowd, but prayed that it would be warmer than the 3rd round game against Bolton. It wasn’t. Cold, sparse, and not really that much atmosphere, even in the town. I tried a bevy in the Dun Cow as Pools slipped away at the hands of West Ham (if we thought it was a dodgy pen last weekend, just look at that one again) then the Central before taking up my chilly seat. It was FA Cup day, and there might be an interesting team in the round, but before kick-off we were more entertained by the fact that Wigan had actually paid money to take Mido to Lancashire. Rumour has it that someone said to him “what’s your favourite tellytubby?” and he answered “Sony widescreeen, you cheeky get”.

So we started with Fulop, Chimbo, Collins and Ferdy at the back, and a midfield of Steed, Leadbitter, Carlos, and Reid. Up front there was a rare partnership of Chops and Healy.

Crikey, how am I supposed to make this sound entertaining? To be fair, both sides did try to make something of the game, but both failed miserably. Lots of effort, but no real quality. Samba headed wide early on, and then the game sort of fell asleep. Healy was either guilty of wasting a rare start or the unlucky recipient of no real balls from midfield. Only Carlos looked anything like breaking through Blackburn’s muscular defence, and captain for the day Leadbitter fired in a few long distance efforts. The crowd tried their best to keep things alive, but at those temperatures, there is only so much you can do. Healy had a decent shot saved not long before the break, and even his effort from the rebound was saved.

There were no changes for the second half, and the game continued in the same vein as the first. Even the most biased Sunderland fan had acknowledged that Healy’s effort was offside on about 65, it was that sort of day. Two minutes later, Jones came on, but managed to do exactly bugger all apart from set up Steed. Unfortunately, Steed decided to fire as far wide as humanly possible into the North Stand and that was about our last real chance. Chimbo got in a really good block and then had a decent shot, and the ref decided enough was enough. So we have to play Rovers for the fifth time this season in a fortnight, and that will be a real treat.

Man of the Match? Chimbo, by about ten miles. Always cool at the back, and always willing to help move forwards.

Keep the Faith

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