Blackpool FC vs Rotherham United review

The League One match between Blackpool FC and Rotherham United played on February 11, 2025 with this game being reschedule from the December 7, at Bloomfield Road, ending in a 0-0 draw.

In the first half, Blackpool's winger Sammy Silvera tested Rotherham's goalkeeper Dillon Phillips with two long-range efforts. Striker Jake Beesley had a notable chance before halftime but could only find the side-netting after an Albie Morgan corner. 

Rotherham improved in the second half, with forward Jordan Hugill directing a header onto the roof of the net from a Joe Powell cross. Blackpool's manager, Steve Bruce, made a triple substitution on the hour mark, introducing Rob Apter, Niall Ennis, and Kyle Joseph. Apter nearly made an immediate impact, but his effort was deflected into the side netting by a Rotherham defender. 

Both teams had 16 shots, but Rotherham managed eight on target compared to Blackpool's two. Possession was evenly split, with Rotherham slightly edging it at 51%.

This result marked Blackpool's seventh consecutive home league draw, keeping them in 11th place in the League One standings.

personally I thought this game shows what our whole season has been like from home boring with a lack of intent to score and more focusing on defending and securing the point but the only spark within this game was the defence even with the likes of Casey getting injured within 35 minutes but Offiah, Baggot and Tyrer shinning for us. But a thing to take from this game is that without a striker like Bloxham, we struggle Beasley and Fletcher are not a pairing that can take us places and CJ yet again couldn’t figure out how to either use his legs or speed to beat opponents.

My ratings:

Tyrer: 9.0 made some quality saves pretty much kept us in the game and was probably the only highlight of the game

Offiah: 7.8 again just Offiah things had quality moments early on before the Casey injury making good runs, defended well after being moved to centre-half

Casey: 6.5 didn’t really do anything wrong looked a bit sluggish after injuring his ankle probably for the best Bruce didn’t risk him

Baggot: 8.5 defended like a proper defender body on the line and again the only other shinning spark in a poor game

Husband: 7.6 just Husband things defended well nothing special though

Hamilton: 6.0 really poor from him again looked very predictable and looked clueless at times

Morgan: 7.2 An alright game for Albie played some good passes but struggled with the runners in-front of him

Carey: 8.0 ran his socks off all game even though it looked like we were not going to get anything probably deserved a goal for all his effort

Silvera: 6.8 had good moments, close to scoring early on but ghosted after that probably wasted for him to play the almost the whole game

Beesley: 6.2 just a stick upfront against brutes in a Steve Evans side was always going to be a losing battle

Fletcher: 5.8 looked poor without Bloxham next to him does not really have a good connection with Beesley

SUBS

Gabriel: 7.0 good coming for Casey looks not as sharp as he use to be still put a lot of effort in though

Evans: 6.5 nothing special still looking like not playing much recently after his injuring seemed to affect him

Apter: 7.4 had good moments still needs to work on his final third decisions

Coulsen: N/A didn’t really have enough time to make an impact still looks nippy though

Subs used Casey off, Gabriel on (35), Hamilton off, Apter on (59), Beesley off, Ennis on(59), Flecther off, Evans on(59), Silvera off, Coulsen on(90)