Ian Holloway remembers Blackpool's promotion to the Premier League: 'My best achievement by a mile and my favourite'

Speaking to The Gazette, Holloway – whose Pool side were tipped for relegation at the start of the season – says it was his job to push his players “through the ceiling”.

“It’s my best achievement by a mile, my favourite of all. That’s because of what the lads created,” he said.

“That’s what I always say –life is about people. I kept warning them that they were special times and they will remember it for the rest of their lives.

“There should be no limits on what we, as people, can achieve.

“I hope I pushed their limits through the ceiling and they all went on to believe and be the players they maybe didn’t even think they could be.”

The play-off final against Cardiff City typified the way Blackpool played that season – on the front foot and willing to take risks with a never-say-die attitude.

The Seasiders came from behind twice thanks to goals from Charlie Adam and Gary Taylor-Fletcher before club stalwart Brett Ormerod struck the winner.

All five goals came in the first-half, Ormerod’s coming on the stroke of half-time, before Blackpool saw out a nervy second period.

Holloway added: “We were developing into a team that played one way and we had to keep going.

“My philosophy all along was that I wanted to outscore the opposition, so if we let a goal in it didn’t really matter and it didn’t change our mindset. We knew we would keep going whatever happened.”

As for the final, he recalled: “Wow! It was a boiling hot day. That’s my first memory!

“I didn’t want the boys to freeze and I didn’t want them to play the occasion – I wanted them to just play the game.

“Even before they scored, I felt we were doing that. We didn’t look nervous. We stuck to our game plan – we hit the diagonals and we got in behind them.

“Their skill level got them two goals and when I look back they were great goals, so there wasn’t an awful lot we could do about them.

“Joe Ledley made a great run. It was a fantastic pass and a great finish.

“And Michael Chopra is Chopra. The only saving grace is that he hit the bar in the second half rather than scoring again.

“What I wanted my team to do was not get affected, to take a punch. Boy, oh boy did we take two ... but we came back with three.

“For Brett to get the winner was amazing, but I think the second goal summed it up because beforehand I kept going on about having one, two, three shots from every chance we had at goal. I wanted the lads to believe we were going to get a follow-up.

“That’s how it transpired, so the things I was talking about came into real life. Fletch got his head kicked off almost but he still scored.

“He will be the first to tell you he’s not an aggressive player. He’s a beautiful player but he stuck his head in where it mattered to get that goal.

“I think Evatt had an overhead kick almost because I said we had to keep the ball alive. It was fantastic.

“Charlie’s free-kick was just sublime. You need people to step up to occasions and everyone of those lads did it all season. Every credit to them.

“The season after we were unlucky with the way it ended, and then I lost my three best players arguably and we almost managed it again (losing the 2011/12 play-off final to West Ham).

“What can I say? Wonderful times, wonderful memories. They were our days in the sun.”