Blackpool in the Premier League 10 years on: Blackburn Rovers loss should be placed in context

Having lost their previous match at Chelsea, the Seasiders suffered a late 2-1 defeat against Blackburn Rovers as STEVE CANAVAN reported....

Anyone down in the dumps about this defeat really shouldn’t be.

No, really, I mean it, for this is the proper definition of down in the dumps.

September 23, 2000 – pretty much exactly 10 years ago. After a 3-1 home defeat to Chesterfield, watched at a grotty, decrepit Bloomfield Road by 3,000 glum-faced folk, Blackpool were joint-bottom of the Football League.

Ninety clubs sat above them. They were only kept off the bottom courtesy of having a slightly better goal difference than Halifax.

Since then, Halifax have gone out of business. After finishing bottom of the Conference in 2008, the club went into administration and couldn’t find the cash to survive.

They’ve since reformed as FC Halifax Town and play in the Evo-Stik Adhesives and Sealants Northern Premier League.

On Saturday, they squeezed past Ashton United in the second qualifying round of the FA Cup. There but for the grace of God.

So, let me repeat, if you’re cheesed off about losing to Blackburn in a Barclays Premier League game, that you could watch again on Match of the Day and read about in all the national Sunday papers, well, you must be bonkers.

These are heady days indeed and for me, despite defeat, Blackpool again produced enough on Saturday to suggest they will do OK in this league, particularly on home soil.

That they were denied at the death was cruel and a blow but nothing more – things are looking good, the Seasiders are not looking out of their depth with the big boys. They are surprising people.

Speaking of which, did you see Ian Evatt’s column in the programme?

I almost fell off my seat whilst reading, in what perhaps ranks as one of the most unexpected articles in recent times, the following from Pool’s burly centre-back: “It was really good for the Pope to come to England for a visit and he got an excellent turnout, although the expense involved is likely to cost the taxpayer a fair bit.”

Next week Evatt examines Ed Miliband’s prospects as Labour leader and assesses Franklin D Roosevelt’s response to the Great Depression of the 1930s...

Against Blackburn, Ian Holloway’s men came up against a side who know all the tricks of the trade in the Premier League and, as you’d expect from a team coached by Sam Allardyce, were big, physical and supremely well organised.

On his return to Bloomfield Road, 16 years after getting the sack for leading Pool to the play-offs (not, ahem, the best decision the club has ever made), Allardyce thoroughly enjoyed himself.

First half he spent furiously chewing the life out of some gum in the directors’ box (I would have loved to have seen his conversation with Owen Oyston, the man who handed him his P45); second half he was in the dugout, celebrating with gusto at the final whistle.

He’d talked beforehand about how he couldn’t remember ever losing to one of his former clubs. Unfortunately the record still stands.

Holloway made four changes to his Blackpool side, bringing in Neal Eardley, Marlon Harewood, Blackburn lad Brett Ormerod and Gary Taylor-Fletcher.

The latter, playing in the hole between the midfield and attack, was terrific and is proving to have a happy knack of making opposing defenders struggle to get the ball off him.

Just a shame he was denied for the second time in the space of a few days by a brilliant bit of goalkeeping, Paul Robinson doing what Petr Cech did the previous week and pulling off a fingertip save to deny Taylor-Fletcher a first goal since the opening day at Wigan.

Pool started the game well and almost scored two minutes in when Evatt’s header from a David Vaughan corner hit Michel Salgado on the line and bounced up onto the upright.

The atmosphere at this point was electric and Blackburn struggled to keep their heads above water.

But they didn’t finish top half of the table last season by fluke and soon began to settle.

It perhaps wasn’t a total surprise when they went ahead, though the nature of the goal was.

Even when Rovers’ impressive striker Nikola Kalinic flicked on El Hadji Diouf’s 21st minute left-wing cross, there didn’t appear to be any danger.

Seasiders’ skipper Charlie Adam had bags of time at the back post to do whatever he liked with the ball.

The option he chose was a little cushioned header back to keeper Matt Gilks.

Unfortunately, Gilks wasn’t au fait with his captain’s plans and could only watch helplessly as the ball trundled into the net.

“To be fair, it was a lovely finish,” mused Holloway later. The boss has said keeping his sense of humour is the only way he’ll stay sane this season, and it’s at moments like that he most needs it.

The man mountain that is Chris Samba headed Morten Pedersen’s free-kick against the post, and in the second half, Gilks pulled off as good a save as you’ll see all season when he somehow blocked Phil Jones’ point-blank header with his right boot.

Pool were playing the better football and working hard, but when Adam narrowly failed to make amends for his earlier aberration, heading Eardley’s peach of a cross agonisingly across goal, it seemed defeat was on the cards.

Holloway had already bought on Luke Varney, who did very well, and Elliot Grandin.

Then, seven minutes from the end, the last throw of the dice – Matt Phillips on for Eardley.

A 19-year-old signed from Wycombe making his first-ever appearance, both for Blackpool and in the Premier League.

We’d barely had time to mutter ‘no chance that’ll work...’ when Phillips, getting his first touch of the ball, collected Varney’s pass, charged into the box and fired a low right-footer into the bottom corner.

A fantastic start and the lad did a few other nice things during his short time on the pitch, enough to suggest he’s a big future in the game.

Chances are he has played himself into the starting line-up at Liverpool next week. Not a bad place to make your full debut.

Alas Phillips’, and Pool’s day, was ruined three minutes into stoppage time when Blackburn broke down the left through Diouf (who, it has to be said, had an excellent afternoon ... as much as some fans might hate to admit it).

The home side failed to clear a ball into the box and Brett Emerton, despite looking suspiciously offside moments earlier, pounced in expert fashion, planting the ball past Gilks with precision.

Taylor-Fletcher fumed about a foul in the build-up, Holloway was unhappy with referee Mike Dean’s performance throughout (though it could have been worse; Stuart Attwell could’ve been in charge) – but the manager was not unhappy with his team’s display and rightly so.

The Premier League was never going to be easy and there will be more defeats like this before the season’s out, against good, solid teams who know the division well.

But continue to pass and fight and battle like they are, and the Seasiders can have high hopes of staying up.

While we’re on the subject, thank goodness Gael Givet’s underpants did.

I know winning a game is a lovely feeling but quite why the Frenchman had to throw his shorts to the crowd in celebration, leaving him to walk from the pitch wearing only a terrible pair of grey, flabby Y-fronts, is anybody’s guess.

Pool kept their clothes and, with this performance, their dignity.