Brett Ormerod column: Play-off glory with Blackpool beat winning the FA Cup for me

The play-off final in 2010 was the best game of my life – the best sporting moment to score the winner at Wembley to send Blackpool to the Premier League.
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It certainly wasn’t the best goal that I’ve scored in my career but for what it meant it stands out on its own.

Prior to that day, I’d say my best memory was playing in the FA Cup final for Southampton against Arsenal in 2003.

We didn’t win it, so that was a little bit tainted.

Brett Ormerod seals Blackpool's ticket to the 'promised land' with the winning goal in the play-off final at WembleyBrett Ormerod seals Blackpool's ticket to the 'promised land' with the winning goal in the play-off final at Wembley
Brett Ormerod seals Blackpool's ticket to the 'promised land' with the winning goal in the play-off final at Wembley
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But as a little kid it’s always your dream to play in an FA Cup final, so that was special.

But that final against Cardiff just summed up our whole season – it was the fitting conclusion.

Going into the season as relegation favourites, we simply had no right to make it into the Premier League.

The only other achievement I can compare it to is Leicester City winning the Premier League.

To do what we did, as far as I’m concerned, was brilliant.

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But it’s easier to understand once you knew what sort of team spirit we had and the mindset of the lads, management and everyone connected with the club at the time.

To score the winner at Wembley, my dreams were made. That’s the sort of thing you can tell your grandkids.

My kids are bored of it now – I’ve told them loads of times! I’ve got to wait for my grandkids now, so I can tell them all about it.

Fulfilling that dream was special, but it was all about getting Blackpool into the Premier League and I was delighted I could play my part.

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It was an impossible dream as far as I’m concerned – no-one gave us a chance.

It was just an outrageous year for us.

Years like that are very, very rare. They don’t come around very often.

I think we had the lowest budget ever for a club promoted to the Premier League and I don’t think that will ever be beaten.

That final just summed us up as a team, though, winning after coming from behind twice.

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Normally when you concede, it’s a natural instinct to feel like you’ve been hit in the gut and you start to panic a little bit.

But we never did because we knew we would create chances.

We got the ball back to the centre spot and carried on just as we were before.

The only time I panicked is when I came off because it was the worst 20 minutes of my life.

I sat in the dressing room and had Billy Clarke running to the pitch and back, telling me what was happening.

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We could hear the fans when someone had missed. I watched the highlights back afterwards and I saw Joe Ledley had just missed a header and Michael Chopra missed one as well.

If I had been on the bench at that point I think I would have just melted, it was that tense.

But the final whistle was the best feeling in my life. It was unbelievable.

The celebrations afterwards were brilliant. We stopped at a hotel and we had a big party. A few of us went to a casino.

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I went back to the hotel to my missus and kids, and I just got into bed and stared at the ceiling all night.

The adrenaline was going so much I couldn’t sleep.

The whole day, the whole occasion, I was still struggling to come to terms with it.

I was shattered but I couldn’t sleep, so I just sat there until 7am, until my youngest got up and we went down and got some breakfast.

I was absolutely buzzing, I just couldn’t switch off.

To be honest, it took me about three days for it to finally sink in.

We then went back to Blackpool for the celebration and I’ve still got a lot of that on video and on my phone.

They were just amazing scenes. It was just a great time.