Book Review: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never has the cliché that your school days are the best days of your life, been less tired than when applied to Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, a novel which charts the relationships of three friends from childhood through to adulthood.

Their paths crossing at the seemingly idyllic English boarding school Hailsham, Kathy, Tommy and Ruth grow close to one another, with romance sometimes muddying the waters of friendship, but as they grow older they learn that all of them are set for a dark future which will eventually drive the three of them apart for good.

To elaborate on what that future is and how the trio react to it, would be to deprive anyone unfamiliar with the novel of its unique exploration of both the beauty and the pain of human relationships, as it is one we can all relate to.

Though we probably do not stand before futures as ominous as those which face the three main characters face, there is no doubt that all of us at some time or other in our lives have looked back at a time in our past and wished we could somehow dive back there even if only for a day. Through the particularly bleak fate that awaits its main characters Never Let Me Go casts a spotlight over the moments in life where a person’s circumstances change irrevocably, uprooting old relationships once believed unbreakable for good. Seldom do these decisions come without sacrifice and the sad realisation that as wonderful as it would be to return back to a time when life was one elongated frolic, such an opportunity has long since passed.

In capturing the beauty of friendships in their infancy and the often harsh realities of growing up, Ishiguro has written a novel that (barring the sudden invention of time travel) will be relatable for generations to come.

Rating: 4/5 Cruel yet beautiful, a wonderful standalone novel.

Book Review: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Winner of a scholarship that has catapulted away from her small town home and into the heart of New York City, Esther Greenwood appears to have the world at her feet in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, the only trouble is, everything she has spent her young life working towards no longer seems to matter.

As Esther’s existential crisis sees her fortunes plummet to astonishing depths, one fears for her future and the fact that this suddenly bleak outlook is caused by nothing more than indecision is all the more alarming. Esther’s plight highlights the precarious situations those guilty of perhaps the most understandable of crimes: not knowing what they want to do with their life by the end of their teenage years; can find themselves in and how quickly their prospects can diminish following a simple bout of indecision.

The sudden horror Esther is plunged into when she has a change of heart about her future is perhaps more relevant today, over half a century on from publication than ever before, as with University tuition fees at an all-time high, the price of indecision among young people has never been more costly.

Esther’s story underlines the caution that should be exercised when setting expectations for young people, most of whom are still some distance off finding their way in the world. And an acknowledgment among teachers, employers and parents alike that it is far more common for young adults to be undecided about their futures than it is for them to have their entire life mapped out by nineteen, would go a long way towards ensuring that society does not become riddled with contemporary Esther Greenwoods.

Rating: 4/5 Thought-provoking, chilling and masterfully written. Thoroughly deserving of its status as a post-war classic.

Book Review: Women by Charles Bukowski

In Women, former postal clerk and previous incumbent of hundred and one dead-end jobs Henry “Hank” Chinaksi has made it… not quite big, but he has at least augmented his status above that of the general population. A professional writer whose life has become something of a continuous roadshow of poetry readings, Chinaski’s upturn in fortunes sees him no longer hobnobbing with the dregs of society but with a raft of women most of whom are young enough to be his daughter.

With the raging libido chronicled in prequels Post Office and Factotum still firmly intact, and with his list of suitors now considerably longer, Chinaski appears initially to be lapping his new lifestyle having trodden an extremely calamitous path to success. But as the relentless merry-go-round of women in his life continues to revolve, Chinaski begins to question whether he has in fact won after all.

As a reader, one is inclined to feel something similar as the novelty of the scoundrel from Post Office and Factotum’s success wears pretty thin, pretty quickly. Chinaski’s now nonchalant manner of conducting himself is a far cry the desperate, self-deprecating demeanour he exhibited in his two previous literary outings.

Chinaksi himself states on numerous occasions that he is far from a household name as writers go and it is tempting to contemplate – as he continues to go about life with a newfound assuredness that was previously alien to his followers – how insufferable he might become if he ever reached anything close to Hemingway status.

His shenanigans remain entertaining and the grim, blunt, nauseating details of some of his many less than dignified encounters endure as they did in Factotum and Post Office. But in Women, Henry Chinaski is no longer a guy trying to make it in the world, consumed by vice and trapped in a thankless system; he is instead a professional writer with nothing better to do than indulge the same vices he did prior to his success, and for that reason, he loses more than a semblance of his charm.

Film review: Diego Maradona by Asif Kapadia

Having been unable to watch Asif Kapadia’s Diego Maradona documentary at the cinema last summer I took the first opportunity I had watch it now it is available for purchase and it is fair to say it not disappoint.

I sat down, a product of my era, believing that Diego Armando Maradona is the second greatest football player ever to have walked the earth after his countryman Lionel Messi. My argument for this had always been that although Maradona succeeded where Messi (barring an unlikely Argentina triumph in Qatar in 2022) failed, he never had the club career that the Barcelona number ten has had and in terms of numbers this is correct. Maradona’s still exceptional career strike rate is slightly better than a goal every other game, Messi’s is close to a goal per game, however this documentary which focuses primarily on Maradona’s trophy-littered spell at Napoli, showed me just how wrong I was about Maradona’s supposedly inferior club career.

Through a combination of highly intimate footage and forthright subtitled interviews Kapadia tells the story of boy from the slums of Buenos Aires whose genius with a football supported his family from the age of 15, carried an unfancied national team World Cup glory and dragged Napoli from the perpetual doldrums into the most decorated period in their history.

The man we see rise to deity-like status in Argentina and Naples in much of the footage is a far cry from the apparently drug-addled maniac who we saw making obscene gestures at spectators from the stands during the 2018 World Cup. Young Diego is a man of the people with a zest for life and above of all, his football, who seems to revel in using his superior abilities to transform the fortunes of mediocre teams. At points throughout the film it appears that Maradona is less man and more superhero who having been circling the world at a thousand miles an hour heard the distant cry of Neapolitan people and touched down in Southern Italy ready to embark on his biggest mission yet. Napoli’s answer to Superman’s kryptonites become steadily more apparent as the documentary progressive however as the most talented player of his generation succumbs to temptation and excess along his path to glory. The documentary attempts to explain away these chapters in the story as the result of Argentine’s alter ego ‘Maradona’ whose brashness and tendency to take the law into his own hands threatens to eclipse the boy Diego’s pure-hearted attempts to bring joy to all those who follow Argentina and Napoli.

He succeeds on both fronts and although the fallout in the years that follow often makes for uncomfortable viewing, Maradona is undeniably a hero to both Argentina and Napoli combining unparalleled genius with a passion and dedication to bring glory to these two overlooked teams that is stirring to watch.

While we have at times seen stress born into the countenance of Lionel Messi when the weight of Argentinean expectation is on his shoulders, Maradona welcomes the pressure with open arms, embraces it warmly and walks out for the 1986 World Cup Final as an even mightier footballing behemoth than he was in the previous rounds.

True, Maradona did not have the strike rate at club level that Lionel Messi had, but what Maradona did at Napoli is akin to Lionel Messi in his prime turning up at Everton and refusing to leave the club until they are the dominant force in English football.

It is fairly certain to say that Messi’s powers will never be tested to this degree and that is why as brilliant as the current Argentina number ten is, I believe Maradona’s club career, at a closer glance, trumps him. For all the trophies, records and personal accolades Messi has racked up he is yet one more example of an exceptional player spending his career playing in exceptional teams, Maradona by contrast, did not do this, choosing instead to use his powers to liberate a fanatically-followed yet underachieving team from a deprived area to glory beyond its wildest dreams. Maybe I’m merely a fool who is too easily swayed by a well-made documentary, but in my opinion, it is Maradona’s decision to apply his greatness to raise up those around him who would have otherwise probably never had their day in the sun, that makes him still, the best football player ever to have walked the earth.

Rating: 4.5/5 – At times beautiful, at times disturbing, a fascinating and moving insight into the life of a troubled genius.

Lincoln victory a step in the right direction for Blackpool

One thing that has been fairly obvious in the first two months of Blackpool’s season is that Simon Grayson does not yet know his best team and formation. But in last Friday’s 2-1 victory over Lincoln City, Grayson seemed to take a huge step in the right direction.

Abandoning the 3-5-2 that had brought about a decent if not spectacular start to the season, Grayson opted for a 4-3-3 against Lincoln and the changes served to make the Seasiders a much more potent attacking force than they had looked in any of their previous home matches.

With the ever-improving Jordan Thompson pushing forward from midfield along with Matty Virtue and Liam Feeney playing as winger rather than a wing-back; Blackpool unlike in many of their previous outings looked likely to score by means other than a Feeney cross landing on the head of Armand Gnanduillet.

This greater and more varied goal threat was underlined when Sean Scannell smashed a Feeney cutback into the top corner and Thompson nutmegged his way through the Lincoln defence to double ‘Pool’s advantage inside 22 minutes.

Lincoln replied soon afterwards and were always a threat going forward, but so too were Blackpool and had Thompson’s volley from a Gnanduillet knockdown not been saved by the visiting goalkeeper mid-way through the second half, a rather nervy ending for the Seasiders could have been avoided.

Although the match showed there are still definite chinks in the Seasiders’ armour (full-backs Ollie Turton and Stephen Husband, in particular, did not cover themselves in glory from a defensive point of view) the increased attacking potential the 4-3-3 gave the Seasiders suggests it is a system worth persevering with. So who starts in it?

Barring any injuries, the back four of Turton, Heneghan, Tilt and Husband appears to pick itself, while both full-backs appear defensively fallible their ability going forward coupled with a lack of any credible alternatives should see them start more often than not.

Jay Spearing is Pool’s captain and will anchor the midfield all season if fit; Thompson is starting to look increasingly undroppable in front of him and the final midfield spot appears likely to alternate between Virtue and Callum Guy throughout the season.

The real question is who starts in the front three or to put it more accurately, who occupies the final place alongside Feeney and Gnanduillet?

Feeney with a league-high seven assists is the first name on the team sheet and Gnanduillet though not without his flaws, has succeeded where his rivals Ryan Hardie and Joe Nuttall have failed so far this season. Standing six foot four inches, Gnanduillet is the natural target man in the squad and against Lincoln demonstrated his ability to create space for his team mates by occupying the attention of multiple defenders at once.

It is fair to say ‘Pool fans have not yet seen the best of Joe Nuttall, although the ex-Blackburn Rovers man’s game seems to revolve around pace and running in behind defenders rather than hold up play. Having paid a decent sum of money for his services, everyone at Bloomfield Road will be expecting more from Nuttall in the coming months, but for now, it looks as if he will have to force his way into the line-up by making an impact from the bench.

So with Nuttall and Hardie likely to be playing second fiddle to Gnanduillet, who plays on the left of this would-be front three?

Sean Scannell certainly didn’t do his case any harm with a debut goal against Lincoln, but the obvious choice appears to be Sully Kaikai, who despite being anonymous in the defeat to MK Dons, is clearly one of the most talented players in the squad. An opportunity to play as a winger rather than as a number ten where there are more opportunities to isolate opponents could see the former Crystal Palace player flourish as the season progresses.

Then there is the question of Nathan Delfouneso when he returns from injury and this seems the biggest dilemma of all.

Kaikai appears to have the advantage in trickery to play out wide and Delfouneso always seems at his most effective when played through the middle.

‘Pool’s best performances with the 3-5-2 came when Delfouneso played off Gnanduillet so it may be that the easiest path back into Grayson’s starting line-up for the ex-England under 21 international is if the 4-3-3 is abandoned.

There is sure to be much more chopping and changing as the nights grow darker and the games come in there infamously ‘thick and fast’ manner; but after the Lincoln match, it does appear that progress (progress while still occupying the play-off places) is being made.

Book Review: Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

Having loved every Stephen King novel I’d ever read up until this point, it was with high expectations that I opened Salem’s Lot.

For a number of reasons, reading this book took me longer than it should have done. But when it was over, I nonetheless found myself feeling somewhat disappointed.

The plot was straight forward enough: small town plus creepy old house plus vampires equals scary story.

And as one would expect from a writer of King’s calibre, once the story reached its all-out man versus monster stage, I couldn’t turn the pages quickly enough. But my main issue with Salem’s Lot is that it took me far too long to get to that point.

The novel was near-500 pages long so it would’ve been foolish not to suspect a certain amount of build-up, but I found the setup dragged in a way I hadn’t felt with other King novels. Perhaps it was the number of characters involved, most of whom I felt little affinity towards, maybe this was down more to my disrupted reading of the novel more than the characters themselves, but by the time things got sordid I found myself caring probably less than I should have done whether most of these characters lived or died.

The honourable exception to this was protagonist Ben Mears, the wandering writer who charms local girl Susan Norton and her parents with his quick wits, who had a kind of nonchalance to him that won me over fairly early on.

Once Ben and his less interesting fellow characters started getting into trouble the novel became the usual King-powered white-knuckle ride until the last page, however my overriding thought as I closed Salem’s lot was that it took a little too long to get a seat on the roller coaster.

Rating: 3/5 – Slow start, but once in full flow exactly what you’d expect from Stephen King.

MK Dons give Blackpool early season reality check

The age-old adage is that a week can be long time in football. Forget a week. Five minutes can be a long time in football. Just ask Simon Grayson and his Blackpool team.

Last week with forty minutes played in their away fixture at Coventry City, ‘Pool were 2-0 up and cruising towards the top of the League One table. They went on to concede two in the last five minutes of the first half, lose the match and yesterday followed up that defeat with a 3-0 reverse at home to MK Dons.

In the space of a week and two results, Blackpool have gone from pace-setters to a team in disarray, if the views of some of the fans are to be believed.

So where has it all fallen apart? Or has it in fact never been quite as put-together as it was first thought?

Although they were beaten 3-0 on Saturday, the Seasiders were the dominant force for large parts of the game having 63% of the possession and registering 18 shots to the visitors’ 11. Cynics will no doubt point out that the only stat that matters is the one in which the Seasiders drew a blank, and this of course is a valid point.

But if comparisons are drawn with ‘Pool’s 2-0 opening day win over Bristol Rovers, there is a case to suggest that Simon Grayson’s team performed to a similar if not better level against MK Dons. The difference on Saturday was that Pool did not capitalise on their possession and the chances they created; and that when they conceded chances they were punished by the opposition.

Bristol Rovers on the opening day actually had more possession (57%) and registered more shots on goal than MK Dons did (15 to 11). The difference, an observer of both games could argue, was simply that the Gas squandered the early opportunity they had to take the lead at Bloomfield Road, whereas the Dons did not.

Rovers struck the post with an early shot on the opening day before ‘Pool had established themselves in the game, while MK Dons profited from poor home defending at a corner and took the lead after five minutes.

Had the Dons also wasted their early opportunity as Bristol Rovers had done on the opening day, there is a strong case to say that the result could have been different.

Blackpool, though shaken by the goal, gradually regained the initiative and an equaliser looked well within their reach before an individual error by Curtis Tilt put the game out of sight.

It is the second time in two home matches Tilt has had his pocket picked and although he is undoubtedly one of the Tangerines’ most talented footballers, this is something he needs to eradicate from his game, if he is either to progress with Blackpool or impress the higher-level suitors rumoured to be interested in him.

The stands at Bloomfield were a sea of frustration and descent after the second goal and when the third went in, one could have been forgiven for thinking another boycott had begun. Naturally, every supporter wants to see their team win, but in terms of general play were ‘Pool really that much worse than they were against Bristol Rovers? The stats indicate they weren’t. Have they in fact been that much better all season?

A deeper analysis of the games they have won so far in the league seems to suggest not. Blackpool beat Bristol Rovers in a game in which they ceded possession and chances to wasteful opposition; they beat Southend, who are currently kept off the bottom of the table by virtue of Bolton Wanderers’ points deduction; and Oxford United, who outplayed them for long periods.

My conclusion is that although Saturday’s result was (there’s no getting away from it) a woeful one, the performance was not too dissimilar to those which ‘Pool have turned out so far this season. Individual errors warped the score line and perhaps drew attention to something that a kind early run of fixtures (four of ‘Pool’s seven league matches have been against teams currently occupying the bottom half of the table) had thus far masked.

Blackpool, although equipped with a deeper and more talented squad this season, are yet to find a way of playing that harnesses the best of the ability at their disposal.

This is Simon Grayson’s challenge and it is up to him to try and solve the conundrum and come up with a winning formula.

Grayson faced a similar challenge during his first spell at the club, at the start of the 2006/07 promotion season with a lot of new players coming in after the season started. ‘Pool also got off to a far worse start that year as well, so there is no need for us to panic just yet!

As I too ponder what Blackpool’s winning formula might look like I decided to put my bald cap on and pretend to be Mr Grayson. Working under the assumption that Nathan Delfouneso is likely to be side-lined for the next few games, here are three of the formations and elevens I came up with:

My possible Blackpool XIs

(3-4-1-2) Alnwick; Turton, Heneghan, Tilt; Feeney, Spearing, Thompson, Husband; Kaikai; Hardie, Gnanduillet.

(4-2-2-2) Alnwick; Turton, Heneghan, Tilt, Husband; Thompson, Spearing; Feeney, Kaikai; Gnanduillet, Hardie.

(4-3-3) Alnwick; Turton, Heneghan, Tilt, Husband; Thompson, Spearing, Guy; Feeney, Nuttall, Kaikai.

Book review: The Great Gatsby

Knowing my recent holiday would be a busy one I decided to take The Great Gatsby as my book. I had already read it but that had been eight years ago, so I felt reacquaintance with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic was acceptable.

For readers who have somehow managed to avoid Fitzgerald’s magnum opus thus far, it focuses on title character Jay Gatsby through the eyes of finance yuppie Nick Carraway, whose friendship with Gatsby grows throughout the novel.

Gatsby is the sort of man most of us wish we were. He is rich and successful, he lives in a mansion by a lake and has developed a reputation among the Long island glitterati for throwing flamboyant parties.

He is a man who on the surface has everything he wants, but once we scratch beneath that we realise he has nothing. For the only thing he truly desires is already-married Daisy Buchanan.

Gatsby’s dilemma causes us to challenge the notion of what it means to be wealthy and also the concept of the ‘American Dream’ that was at large in the 1920s – the time of publication.

The novel teaches us that there are certain personal voids that no amount of wealth can fill and demonstrates how people will often busy themselves in other endeavours either because they believe the thing they truly want to be inaccessible or because they believe the pursuit of greatness in a particular field to be the best means of indirectly attracting the thing they truly desire.

Though this book will be one hundred years old in six years, there has been very little change in the narrative of western culture with regard to wealth since it was first published. Becoming rich is still the answer to everything in western culture and Jay Gatsby by that logic should be one of the happiest men alive.

His story is as welcome a reminder now as it was ninety-four years ago that happiness is not something that cannot be achieved by simply amassing a suitably abundant figure in one’s bank account.

Rating: 4.5/5

Probably the best short read in history. So… yeah, if you’ve somehow avoided until now, go and get it ticked off the list!

Film Review: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

I’d been looking forward to watching Once Upon A Time in Hollywood a while before its release date. Quentin Tarantino plus an all-star cast portraying life in the hills in the late sixties seemed about as safe a bet in the entertainment stakes as any film two hours and 45 minutes long could be.

But having been on holiday during its release in the UK by the time I came around to watching it myself the reviews from friends who had seen it were less than complimentary. ‘Disappointing’ and ‘a bit boring in places’ being the common words used in most verbal reviews I received.

On account of these reviews, I headed to the cinema with more trepidation than I otherwise would’ve done. Trepidation that to my relief, I found to be unwarranted. To me, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood was not boring, not in the slightest. Yet at the same time, I could understand why certain audiences might read it as such.

The story centres around the question of whether Leonardo Di Caprio’s character, Rick Dalton, the one-time star of a hit TV Western; can re-invent his flagging acting career, while his co-dependent and laidback stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) loiters around nonchalantly waiting on the results.

This storyline was enough to hold me and I particularly enjoyed the contrast between Dalton who seems to be perpetually on the verge of a mental breakdown over his uncertain future and Booth, who gives the impression that whatever ills befall him he will merely shrug his shoulders and get on with his life.

The biggest disappointment to me was Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, or to be more accurate, the lack of significance Robbie’s character seemed to hold throughout the bulk of the movie.

It is not until the final scene that she seems to play any critical role in the story other than providing an extremely attractive distraction to the adventures of Dalton and Booth. In the end, her role in the story does become clear, however for the majority of the film her inclusion appears to be little more than a dated ‘insert female eye candy here’ manoeuvre, which I found disappointing for a film made in 2019.

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood was marketed as much on the triumvirate of talent that heads its cast, as it was as being Tarantino’s ninth film and yet the gravitas of Robbie’s character in comparison to Pitt’s and Di Caprio’s is laughable.

I’m aware the film is set in the 1960s and I’m no expert on Sharon Tate, maybe all she did was smile, dance around and look sexy, but to me her role in the story (especially given Tarantino’s connections with Harvey Weinstein) was hardly a hearty endorsement of the post-“Me Too” era.

Tarantino has earnt the right to do what he wants of course, but from a personal point of view, I would like to have seen more of Robbie as an actress in her role as Tate. We all know she is pretty, but why not give her something mildly important to do as well Quentin?

Although I do not share their view, I did find a degree of validity in my friends’ criticism that the film is dull in places. There are certain re-enactments of sixties TV shows which I’m sure Tarantino with encyclopaedic knowledge of movies through the decades, Hollywood and the business that surrounds it, found hilarious but I couldn’t help but feeling as I sat in the silent cinema, that I, everyone else in the room and millions more around the world with much more flimsy knowledge of American film and TV in the 1960s were likely to be missing the punchline.

Despite the tumbleweed moments dotted sporadically about the cinema, there was enough to keep me entertained while Tarantino lined up all of his ducks ahead of the climax.

And when that climax hit it was well worth enduring the duller moments of the previous two hours: the scene exploding into a unique cocktail of chaos that Tarantino has always had a knack for creating.

For those wondering why the climax is so unique, I will simply tell you that it features a cigarette dipped in acid, a ferocious dog, a group of murderous hippies and a copious dollop of characteristically absurd Tarantino violence. This scene was Tarantino at his best as he once again demonstrated his gift for projecting situations you are unlikely ever to see again onto the screen.

The denouement following the chaos was less thrilling but wholly satisfying, as I left the cinema not only sure how Dalton and Booth’s futures would pan out but finally clear (after spending the best part of two hours wondering) what the purpose of Sharon Tate’s inclusion in the movie was.

Overall my view of Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is that it probably didn’t quite live up to the hype was inevitably going to surround it given that the status of its cast coupled with Tarantino’s pull as a director. But neither was it dull and a complete failure as several people had tried to tell me.

My overriding emotion when it comes to Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is that it is not Pulp Fiction (probably nothing ever will be) but like everything Tarantino has done before it, it stands up as a credible vignette in his body of work. Anyone enamoured with Hollywood and the 1960s will probably think this is the most wonderful piece of film-making they have ever seen and I’m happy to acknowledge that if I knew more about the period the film is set in my viewing experience would have probably been sizably enhanced.

But alas, I do not and that is why Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to me, is simply a good film and nothing more.

Rating: 3.5/5

Worth going to see, but maybe lower your expectations a touch. The film was always going to have to go some to live up to the hype that surrounded it.

An unfamiliar opening day: Blackpool actually look good

The opening game of 2019/20 season was a strange one for Blackpool fans for a number of reasons.

The pitch looked in good condition, the stands after so many opening games more or less empty were well-populated and there wasn’t even the usual gust of wind sweeping around Bloomfield Road.

But perhaps strangest of all was what seen on the pitch: Blackpool did not as they so often did under the regime of the previous owners look like a rag-tag bunch of free transfers and loan players cobbled together on the eve of the season.

By contrast, Simon Grayson’s team already looked to have makings of a well-oiled machine.

Grayson, although the day belonged to his namesake Sadler, has to take much of the credit for that.

The 5-3-2 system deploying Stephen Husband and Liam Feeney as wing-backs gave ‘Pool a balance between attack and defence and a variation to their play that was missing in the latter part of Terry McPhillips’s reign, in which the Seasiders had become a rather predictable long ball team.

The three centre-backs consisted of Curtis Tilt and Oliver Turton either side of Ryan Edwards, who like his fellow debutant Jack Alnwick behind him in goal, looked assured and confident at this level. Tilt and to a lesser extent Turton were both given license to join in with attacks when ‘Pool were in possession and their willingness to take the ball proved useful when recycling possession at the back.

Jay Spearing played his usual holding role, got a goal and an assist for his troubles, and was supported by the tenacious Jordan Thompson who was entrusted with the simple yet important task of winning the ball and dishing out to those around him, which he did with varying degrees of success throughout.

Ahead of him was Sullay Kaikai, who at first glance appears to have ability capable of carrying him a lot higher than League One. With pace and trickery, Kaikai playing in behind the two strikers, was a hub of creativity and given that his experience of regular football has been somewhat limited to date, he looks to be a player who will only better.

Up front was Armand Gnanduillet who scored an excellent diving header and caused Bristol Rovers problems throughout with his physicality. Nathan Delfouneso though less eye-catching was industrious as ever alongside him and added to the Seasiders’ cohesion going forward.

On this showing both the front two probably did enough to secure their starting places for next week’s trip to Southend. But the difference this campaign is that if their standards do drop at some point, they will not have the luxury as they often had last season of finding themselves on the team sheet regardless.

Two new strikers in Ryan Hardie and Joe Nuttall sat on the bench for the majority of the game (Nuttall replaced Gnanduillet with fifteen minutes to go) and neither have moved to Bloomfield Road to do that long-term.

To keep their places Gnanduillet and Delfouneso will have to perform every week, not every other week. And that can only bode well for Blackpool’s season.

Although positives were plentiful, it would be dangerous to view the victory through spectacles too bright a shade of tangerine: Bristol Rovers hit the post at nil-nil and at times were allowed space to run at the Seasiders’ backline.

But overall ‘Pool were worth the victory and even at this most infant of stages Grayson appears to have assembled a system that gets the best out of the two most talented players remaining from last season (Feeney and Tilt) while harnessing the abilities of promising new recruits Kaikai and Husband. With Gnanduillet Pool have the option to go long, but now seem equally willing to play through midfield. Something that most Blackpool fans will have undoubtedly enjoyed.

And rightly so. With a new owner in place, an experienced manager in the dugout and new signings who looked the part out on the pitch, as opening days go, this was an unfamiliarly promising one for Blackpool Football Club.