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Ollie's teddy bear team talk
IAN Holloway has revealed the secret of the Seasiders' latest success – a team-talk using teddy bears.
The Blackpool boss bought 22 cuddly toys at his local pub in St Annes and laid them on a table prior to the Boxing Day clash at Derby.
Holloway put a player's name next to each one and used them to demonstrate where he wanted Charlie Adam and co to play.
Unorthodox maybe, but it certainly worked as two Brett Ormerod goals clinched a deserved 2-0 win which lifted Pool to seventh in the Championship.
Today they could move back into the play-off places with victory over Sheffield Wednesday at Bloomfield Road (3pm).
And given what happened at Pride Park, Holloway may be tempted to get the teddies out again...
He explained: "We are all very focused on charity at Blackpool and we want to raise money for Brian House (a children's hospice in Bispham).
We went there the other day and I've never been so moved in my life.
"I asked the lads to do things for charity and when I was in my local, The Admiral, they were selling bears for charity at 1.50 each. I thought it would be a nice Christmas thing to do to buy 22.
"I laid them out in the hotel we went to before the Derby game. It was a little bit of hard work to get all the bears to sit up but I put them in two groups of 11, with the names of our starting line-up next to one group and the names of the team I expected Derby to play next to the other.
"Sometimes we get charged 15 by hotels to write our team out on a flipchart, so I thought I'd use these bears instead because it was only double the price and it's Christmas!
"I lined Derby's bears up in a 4-4-2 and ours 4-3-3, and I explained with one teddy bear what I wanted my wideman to do, and with another what I wanted Charlie to do ... though no way did I say shoot from the halfway line twice (as Adam did during the game).
"The nice thing is that now I've got some bears to give to Brian House, and to my daughters and wife. I like to be different and I'm glad it worked out. I've also taken some photos to show the people in the pub."
READ HOLLOWAY'S AFTER-MATCH INTERVIEW IN FULL IN TODAY'S GAZETTE
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Weather for Blackpool
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: West
