Whatever parade you wanted to see at Bloomfield Road on Saturday, it's fair to say the rain came down on it. From the 'Oyston' out' demo to the parade of new players (and equally trialists), the wet weather was hardly condusive with our one and only pre-season home game. Neither side can really claim credit for having attracted the most fans, although there was probably a bit of cross over from the curious anti-Oystonites.
The lack of numbers for the march can be put down to a number of factors. The weather, holidays, helplesness, apathy, disinterest and of course those who feel there is nothing to protest about. It's been interesting the last 7 days how those who are content with how the club is run have been as evident or as popular as a Katie Price Fan club meeting. No one confesses to liking her but the sales of her books and hits on her website shows she's doing something right. Similiarly the fact that over 1,000 people paid £15 despite all the bad press Blackpool have had this summer shows you can keep kicking a dog, but it will always come back. You could say there are other comparisons between the O's and Ms Price's greatest assets but a bit like Jordan, the Oyston's have been involved in plenty of shams but have survived to tell the tale.
A non-Blackpool fan, whilst appreciating how shambolic this summer has been, would point to the fact that we have a World Cup player in our squad, some of our players have been at the top level and we have enough bodies that we should still make a fight of it this season. Of coure, we need to turn trialists in to signings before we can seriously put out a team but from where we were 7 days ago, there has been some progress. Whilst Karl Oyston won't win Chairman of the Year or have a statue erected to him outside Bloomfield Road, it looks like he's averted a total disaster whilst still having plemty of work to do this season. Those against the O's would probably out-number those in favour, but we all know how fickle fans may be and from next Saturday more will be supporting Jose Riga and his side than will want to stand outside the ground and miss what is happening.
Then we have Mr Riga. What is this we see? Gone the old fashioned 'pass from the back and lump it forward' tactics and in their place a more graceful, ball passing, attractive attacking game. There may have only been a few in training but it looks like he's got his message through. That said, player absentees were just as interesting as those present. When you only have a 13 man squad, you can't afford to have so many 'missing' but McKeznie, Grant and Davies didn't feature whilst presumably Cubero was back at home packing his smalls. The trialists left more questions than answers but names banded about included Elliot Parish, a goalkeeper from Bristol City, former Newcastle man Darren Ambrose, Joe Ralls ex-Cardiff midfielder and Brighton's Andrea Orlandi.
The result was immaterial but the title of the article gives away the fact we lost 1-0 but in the overall scheme of things Saturday was more significant for other reasons. Whether the protestors like it or not, a squad is being assembled at Bloomfield Road and we will have a team to play Forest next week. The manager seemed relaxed and involved meaning that he'll likely be in charge next week. And presiding over it all the man the fans want out Karl Oyston. The protestors may have given him a nudge and the press may have left him staring at a piece of humble pie but it looks like in the latest battle the Chairman has hardly taken a knock. The battle may be lost but the war is far from over, we await to see how many are still up for the fight.