ZOKO SENDS REMAINING FANS LOCO
OME fans might have missed Francois Zoko hand Blackpool their first win of the season through protest, but he hopes the rest of the Championship took note with the striker adamant the Seasiders are set to finally kickstart their campaign.
With no victories from their first ten league matches, Blackpool hosted Cardiff more in hope than expectation of appeasing their fans with the likes of injured Jose Miguel Cubero, Andrea Orlandi, Peter Clarke and on-loan goalkeeper Joe Lewis, who was ineligible to play against parent club Cardiff.
And things didn’t improve when the game started with Joan Oriol lasting just a quarter of an hour and some home fans going through with a planned walkout in the 53rd minute in protest against the club’s owners.
But those who did leave missed the highlight of Blackpool’s season so far as Zoko drilled home a 64th-minute winner with his first for the club, and the 31-year-old hopes this is just the start for the struggling Seasiders.
“When you go to a new club your first goal is memorable,” said Zoko.“Our first win will give me a lot of confidence, but more importantly the team.
“It was the first time I’d been in this position, so I was comfortable and it was a good moment.
“It was my first chance in a few games, and I took it. It was a good ball from Joel Dielna, everything was good to finish this action.
“Everything wasn’t perfect, but the most important thing was the win.We worked hard on the training ground to get the result, this will give us more confidence to work for the future.We’ll work hard this international break and expect to do better.”
Despite their struggles Blackpool started the game brightly and after Ishmael Miller went close with a header, Nathan Delfouneso was only denied the opener by Fabio’s fine challenge.
However, the hosts couldn’t find the back of the net and after going into the break locked at 0-0, their good play was threatened to be derailed in the 53rd minute as some Blackpool fans marched out of the ground shouting ‘We want Oyston out’.
And this specifically-timed protest, a nod to Blackpool’s 1953 FA Cup success, saw Cardiff grow into the game.
Fabio linked well with Ravel Morrison before prodding wide and then a deflected John Bray- ford shot only just missed the target.
But just after the hour Blackpool got the goal they deserved as Joel Dielna fed in Zoko and the striker fired home under Cardiff goalkeeper David Marshall.
Zoko almost doubled the lead before Cardiff substitute Federico Macheda shot tamely when in a good position.
However the chances continued to come and after Delfouneso had somehow been denied by Marshall at point-blank range, Adam Le Fondre blazed over at the other end in stoppage time.
While some Blackpool fans left before that frantic end, one man who stayed at Bloomfield Road was Russell Slade, the former Leyton Orient boss expected to take the reins at Cardiff imminently.
And caretaker manager Scott Young believes Slade’s first task as Bluebirds boss will be to instil some belief back into the team.
“Obviously the players are low on confidence,” said Young. “It’s going to take time to get that back to where they should be. But the only way we can do that is on the training ground and working hard.
“We’ve worked hard over the last two weeks; myself, Danny Gabbidon, all the staff we’ve brought with us and the players as well. They’ve been magnificent. Here we’ve probably let ourselves down a bit in terms of the result and the performance. But we’ll bounce back.”