Blackpool's Championship memories: Millwall win ends a difficult few days for the Seasiders

This week, it’s August 2012 when they shrugged off Capital One Cup defeat against Morecambe and started the league season with a 2-0 win at Millwall, as seen by WILL WATT…

Forget economic growth strategies or the big society, I’ve come up with a simple solution for David Cameron and his chums when they next sit down to attempt to solve the UK’s problems.

Simply ring the switchboard at Bloomfield Road and ask for Ian Holloway.

After all, is there a better crisis manager anywhere in the country?

It was only last week we were talking about what an unusually quiet summer Pool were enjoying, and how everything was perfectly in place for a run at promotion.

Somehow the Seasiders always manage to find the drama, this time in the shape of Matt Phillips dropping the bombshell that he’d like to leave Bloomfield Road.

While I can totally understand some fans’ anger towards him, you can’t really blame a young man for wanting to quadruple his wages and play in the Premier League.

That said, there’s ways of going about things.

Two years ago, Aston Villa came in for then captain Charlie Adam, only for Pool to tell him he was going nowhere.

Although tempted, he didn’t sulk, and instead carried on playing and made himself a Pool legend with his commitment to the cause.

Oh, and by the end of the season it wasn’t Villa, but the might of Liverpool who came calling – take note Matty.

Holloway and his players seem to thrive on trouble, thrive on being written off and thrive on doing what everyone says they can’t.

In this case, the manager decided to hold an impromptu meeting in the hotel bar the day before the game.

He was totally honest with his players, explained the situation and asked their opinions, and boy did they respond.

Matt Phillips is a popular player in the Pool dressing room, particularly close to Saturday’s hero Tom Ince.

So when the striker scored the second of his two fantastic goals, him grabbing the club’s badge and kissing it sent out a huge message.

With Matt Phillips being left at home, claiming he wasn’t in the right frame of mind, Holloway was forced to have a last-minute rethink.

He surprised a few with his team selection.

Tiago Gomes and Isaiah Osbourne were handed debuts in midfield, while Kevin Phillips returned from a hamstring injury to play up top alongside Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Ince.

A selection many described in pre-match as a gamble.

It allowed the Seasiders to revert back to a tried and trusted formation, which served them so well at the end of last season.

Osbourne and Ferguson sat deep in midfield, and Gomes filled the ‘Stephen Dobbie role’ in a 4-2-1-3 set-up.

Despite pitchside temperatures hitting 90 degrees, Pool started the game in comfortable fashion.

As always is the case on the opening day of the season, the home crowd were lively and expected a good start from their side.

Pool were one step ahead and controlled the opening period of the game, keeping the ball well and dictating the tempo.

However, while all the talk is on the top end of the pitch, it’s the man between the sticks who played just as big a part in this victory.

Andy Keogh beat Pool’s offside trap and found himself clear on goal, only for Matt Gilks to make himself big and deny the striker with his feet.

It was a huge moment, had the home side got themselves ahead, who knows what would have happened?

As the half went on, the home side were giving as good as they got, sneaking in behind the Seasiders’ sometimes dangerously high defensive line, only for a mixture of poor finishing and brilliant defending to keep the score at 0-0.

On the half-hour, a good move involving Taylor-Fletcher and Kevin Phillips almost resulted in the first goal of the game.

The pair exchanged passes before Phillips stung keeper Maik Taylor’s hands with a thunderous strike from the edge of the box. Then came the goal, and it was more than worth the wait.

Debutant Gomes’ delightful flick inside the 18-yard box created space for Ince.

The winger opened his body up and curled into the far corner from 12 yards, before wheeling away with his finger on his lips to silence yet another crowd who booed him throughout.

The 700 or so Pool fans who made the long trip will go home more than impressed with Pool’s two debutants.

Osbourne looks like he’s going to be a direct replacement for Keith Southern.

On this showing, he’s big, strong and tidy – exactly the type of player needed in Holloway’s side.

Gomes is just about the opposite, however. He’s a luxury player, just about every pass he made was a forward one as he constantly tried to unlock the Lions’ defence.

As you’d expect, after the break Millwall perked up and handed Pool a scare when Keogh flicked on James Henry’s cross, only for Jack Smith to miss the ball by a matter of inches at the far post.

The second goal was always going to be vital, and this is a Blackpool team who are now ruthless in their approach.

Kevin Phillips did well to find Taylor-Fletcher inside the Millwall half.

He turned and slipped a lovely ball to Ince, who held off the defender and casually clipped the ball into the top corner.

The Seasiders fans’ chant of ‘We’re Blackpool FC, we’ll score when we want,’ followed.

While this isn’t strictly true, Holloway couldn’t have picked better times to score.

The second totally killed off the hosts, who made a decent go of it to be fair to them.

They did create a couple of half-chances, Josh Wright lashing the side netting before Darius Henderson allowed a decent headed chance go begging at the far post.

In truth, they never really looked like having the quality to break the Seasiders down in the final third, with Ian Evatt delivering a typically vintage display.

On reflection it was just what Holloway ordered.

His men will face tougher tasks this season. After all, Millwall aren’t going to be there or thereabouts in the promotion shake-up, but it was vital the Seasiders put a difficult few days behind them.

There’s no doubt a striker is needed, but if this squad can stick together, there’s no doubt they won’t be far away come May.

We’ll know much more on Tuesday – Leeds will offer a totally different test at Bloomfield Road.

Who’d bet against this bunch of players? I certainly wouldn’t.

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