Ten-year anniversary of Blackpool's promotion to the Premier League: Ian Holloway hits back at Plymouth fans after winning return to Home Park

Over the coming weeks, The Gazette’s football writer Matt Scrafton will be dipping into the archives to bring you our reports from a decade ago on Blackpool’s remarkable journey to the promised land.

On this day 10 years ago, Ian Holloway could reflect on a satisfying 2-0 on his return to former club Plymouth Argyle.

Blackpool boss Ian Holloway produced a passionate response when asked about the reception he received from his former club Plymouth Argyle.

He was speaking after the Seasiders claimed a crucial 2-0 win at Home Park courtesy of goals from Charlie Adam and Stephen Dobbie.

It capped off a positive return to Devon for Holloway, who had left Argyle to join Leicester City in 2007.

“We won, so my return to Home Park was all right,” Holloway said.

“Who the hell are they to say what I felt when I was here? I played with passion and I manage with passion, and I think the Plymouth fans believed every word I said when I was here and now they are calling me a liar.

“But they didn’t know about my family situation. They didn’t know what was going on.

“They didn’t know one of my daughters’ education went horribly wrong here. She had to redo a whole year.

“The Leicester situation put my daughter back in her old school and now she has nine GCSEs. So how dare they scream and shout at me.

“But they can because I can’t stop them and I wouldn’t want to. I am a human being. They can think what they want.

“All I know is that I had a very good team when I was here and unfortunately the board decided to sell. That’s how it goes.

“But do I want Plymouth to go down? No, of course not. That’s why I didn’t celebrate our win.

“I think Plymouth have some exciting players and I think (manager) Paul Mariner is doing a great job. I wish them all the best.

“Their front lads are a handful on any given day. They work hard and I think Jamie Mackie has had a terrific season. He never stops.

“Bradley Wright-Phillips has played in the top flight and is still only a young man.

“What we’ve got to do is try to impose our game and I think we did that in the second half. I didn’t think we got the balance in midfield quite right. We played a little bit too far advanced.

“It was almost 4-2-4 rather than a 4-2-1-3, which I wanted. But second half we sorted it out, got a couple of breakaway goals and we denied them the chance to do that.”