Blackpool's Championship memories: Seasiders' subs give manager a milestone victory at Hull City

It’s back to October 2012 this week and, after defeats to Huddersfield Town and Cardiff City, the Seasiders won 3-2 at Hull City as reported by WILL WATT…

It all started on August 8, 2009.

A Ben Burgess goal earned Ian Holloway his first point as Blackpool boss in a 1-1 draw at QPR.

157 games later, and it was a Nouha Dicko stunner which handed the boss his 200th point as Blackpool manager.

What a 200 it’s been. In his first Seasiders press conference, Holloway stunned us all by mentioning three words previously unheard of at Bloomfield Road – the Premier League.

Since then he’s taken Pool on a three-year journey none of us will ever forget, one we’ll probably only really appreciate when he finally moves on.

Few of his 61 wins as Pool boss will be more satisfying than last night’s.

After 70 minutes, Holloway’s men found themselves 2-1 down and staring their third straight defeat in the face.

Where most would have dropped their heads and started to feel sorry for themselves, Holloway turned to two players at the opposite ends of their footballing lives to save the day.

Kevin Phillips was introduced and fired Pool level, before Dicko joined him and won the game with a stunning piece of individual skill.

A defeat last night would have been Pool’s third on the bounce, leaving them with only one win in six games.

Two goals and three points later, it’s a totally different outlook.

The craziness of the Championship this season was summed up in 90 minutes.

At 1-0 up, the Seasiders topped the league table, only to drop to 10th at 2-1 down, which shows just how tight things are in this division.

In a league in which anyone can beat anyone, that looks unlikely to change anytime soon.

Last night Holloway again made mass changes, but this time they didn’t surprise anyone.

He reverted to what most would consider his strongest 11, all barring Tom Ince who once again missed out with a hip injury.

In came Barry Ferguson, Neal Eardley, Tiago Gomes, Isaiah Osbourne, Nathan Delfouneso and Gary Taylor-Fletcher.

It meant another game on the bench for Angel Martinez, and while many would have opted for the Spaniard ahead of Ferguson, Pool lacked leadership against Cardiff at the weekend and the Scottish midfielder brings exactly that.

In the early stages there were no clues as to what a dramatic evening lay ahead.

Blackpool started in comfortable fashion and dictated play during a rather uneventful opening 10 minutes.

They opened the scoring in brilliant fashion. Gomes found space before playing a perfectly-weighted ball down the line into the path of Delfouneso.

Whereas many players would have fired the ball into the box, the Aston Villa loan man showed every bit of his Premier League potential by looking up and cutting it right into the path of Matt Phillips, who finished superbly.

Pool grew in confidence after the goal and, apart from an effort blazed high and wide by Jay Simpson, Hull never really looked threatening.

As the half-hour approached, the home side started to put the Seasiders under pressure.

Six minutes before the break, their pressure told.

Former Pool loan man Sone Aluko found space to turn before letting fly from 25 yards. The ball dipped and turned in the air and gave Matt Gilks no chance.

This gave Hull the spark they were looking for and they ended the half on top.

It wasn’t long after the break that they took the lead.

Aluko again caused problems out wide, this time whipping a brilliant ball into the box for Stephen Quinn to flick past Gilks from a tight angle.

The home side, who were forced to abandon their 3-5-2 formation after injury to defender Alex Bruce, shut up shop and made it very difficult for Holloway’s men to play.

Teams have realised that if you sit deep and pressure Blackpool they aren’t as effective. Stand off and let Pool play, and you’re in trouble.

In truth, as the 70-minute mark approached, not many would have predicted a comeback.

Holloway had a couple of aces in reserve, and it always helps when one of them has over 250 goals to his name.

Only four minutes after being introduced, Kevin Phillips drew Pool level.

Stephen Crainey curled a free-kick to the far post, Ian Evatt knocked it back across goal and there was Phillips in the right place and the right time for the easiest of tap-ins.

They say goals change games and they certainly did last night.

At 2-2 there was only going to be one winner, the only question was who would get it.

On 83 minutes we got the answer, and what a goal it was.

Only eight minutes after coming on, Dicko scored what he has described as the best goal of his career.

When a ball over the top caught Hull keeper Ben Amos in no-man’s land, Kevin Phillips capitalised and played a deflected ball into the box.

As the ball sat up at head height, it didn’t look like Dicko, with his back to goal, had any chance of scoring.

A sensational bit of improvisation, in the form of an overhead kick, handed Pool the lead.

From then on in, it was a lesson in defending from the Seasiders, with a massive return to form from Evatt and Alex Baptiste.

Holloway has been drilling home the importance of dominating their own area, and last night Pool certainly did that.

They won the first ball from just about all of Hull’s 10 corners.

It made such a difference and helped them hold on for a vital win.

There are going to be spells in a season when you lose games, but the key is to get out of a losing run quickly and Blackpool have done exactly that.

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