With just a single game of the 2010-11 Premier League season remaining, Ian Holloway’s side had the opportunity to complete the unthinkable and avoid relegation, though an absolute gargantuan task stood in their way courtesy of Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson’s men had already scooped the league title, but it wasn’t the Scotsman’s style to let his side ease up. Holloway knew the task at hand when he jovially remarked about 24-hour openings and late-night raids when asked if he would attempt to shut up shop.
Blackpool were unlike any other Premier League side facing relegation. If they were to go down, they were to do so with the highest number of goals scored by a relegated team, which is nothing short of astounding considering their strike force at the beginning of the campaign was DJ Campbell and Marlon Harewood.
The seaside town’s resources were light years away from their final day opponents, the soon to be Champions League runners up, meaning maintain their top-flight status was way beyond improbable. Though those tiny odds were the sort Blackpool and Holloway thrived on.
Eight months earlier, there had been an entirely different kind of concern, and it’s important to illustrate just how stringent the resources at Bloomfield Road were. Eighty-one days passed between the play-off final success and the first arrival in the transfer market; during which time five players were released, and another five returned to their parent clubs from loan deals. So many departures meant that the majority of pre-season was performed with a squad of 15.
However, three days before the Premier League season six new faces were drafted in to form a makeshift squad. You’d be forgiven for thinking the team had been put together on a shoestring budget when Blackpool turned up to Wigan Athletic on the opening day of the campaign and hammered Roberto Martinez’s side 4-0. For a brief moment in time, the Tangerines were top of the football pyramid. Still, reality rapidly struck as their trip to the Emirates Stadium on the second game week culminated in a crushing 6-0 defeat.
Away from home was often when Holloway’s side were at their most lethal, exposing high opposition lines and gaining famous victories at St James’ Park and most notably Anfield. They even scared Manchester City at Bloomfield Road when they narrowly lost 3-2. While securing a win over West Brom meant after ten games the bookies’ favourites for relegation were sitting in a smug ninth place.
Shortly after came a superb run of form where 15 points were picked up in 12 fixtures, and the Seasider’s averaged over a goal a game. Nobody had seen this coming, and even fewer teams seemed capable of stopping the all-out offensive game that maximised the potential at Ian Hollaway’s disposal. Their emphatic run included a hard-fought two-all draw with Everton, wins over Wolves, Stoke City and Sunderland and another defeat to Manchester City by just a single goal.
But then came one of the moments of the season. Bloomfield Road was stuffed full of 16,000 spectators to welcome Liverpool. When Fernando Torres’ fierce drive struck the back of the net with just three minutes on the clock, the home fans could be forgiven for believing Liverpool wanted revenge for embarrassment at Anfield. Despite kamikaze defending at times, Blackpool did not roll over all season, and they weren’t about to start now.
On 12 minutes Gary Taylor-Fletcher took advantage of some criminally poor Liverpool defending to poke past Pepe Reina. Then with the visitor’s confidence dwindling DJ Campbell found space in the area and steered a diving header in from close range with 20 minutes left of play. From then on the hosts didn’t just hold on, they commanded their opponents and astoundingly leapfrogged them in the league after securing a vintage double over Liverpool.
With the 2010/11 Premier League season 20 games deep Blackpool were ninth, an obscene achievement from a side put together at the last minute. Worryingly, however, there was still an awfully long way to go, and teams were beginning to work out how to combat their vigorous offensive style.
Blackpool may have scored nine goals in their next five fixtures, but a total disregard for defending meant they conceded 16 and succumbed to five consecutive defeats. All of a sudden, they were sitting on the verge of the relegation places, showing just how cruel life in the Premier League can be.
A draw against Aston Villa and victory over Tottenham Hotspur temporarily halted the slide. Goals from Charlie Adam and DJ Campbell were vital all season, and the pair both converted against Spurs. At this stage of the season if they weren’t firing then neither were Blackpool and confidence was beginning to vanish.
Fellow relegation contenders Wolves hammering the Tangerines 4-0 compounded what little belief was left, and Chelsea’s subsequent arrival at Bloomfield Road was not a welcomed one. Carlo Ancelotti’s men were on their way to a second-place finish and thanks to a goal from John Terry and a Frank Lampard brace they swept the hosts aside 3-1.
At this point, with nine games remaining, Blackpool were 15th in the league, their lowest position all season, but the writing appeared to be on the wall, and they were only heading in one direction. For most outsiders, it was a question of when rather than if they would be relegated at this stage.
Though Charlie Adam had other ideas, he’d tasted Premier League life for the first time and wanted another sip next season. Single-handedly the Scot put Blackpool two goals ahead of fellow strugglers Blackburn Rovers after 30 minutes in their next fixture. Just after half time, Christopher Samba brought the hosts back into the game to make the score 2-1. Samba’s goal appeared to be in vain until three minutes into added time Junior Hoilett broke the Blackpool resistance to deliver an agonising blow resulting in the sides sharing a point apiece.
The following three fixtures against Fulham, Arsenal and Wigan all resulted in Blackpool conceding three and collecting no points. After dangling on the periphery of relegation for the majority of the second half of the campaign, they finally dropped into the bottom three for the first time.
Finally, Holloway decided to shore up the Premier League’s leakiest defence, producing two much-needed draws against Newcastle and Stoke. With three games remaining Blackpool had clambered out of the relegation places.
Then came a trip to Tottenham, only 15 minutes remained on the clock and the match was a stalemate, but Blackpool were gifted a penalty from nowhere. Experienced defender Michael Dawson handled the ball in the area, and Charlie Adam stepped up to the penalty spot. Heurelho Gomes saved his effort, but within the space of a minute, Adam was back standing over another spot-kick after Gomes clattered Taylor-Fletcher in the box. Adam didn’t hesitate to dispatch his second attempt into the top left corner, and Blackpool were within touching distance of breathing room from the relegation zone.
But Tottenham themselves were fighting for a Champions League spot and in no mood to give up and Jermain Defoe found a way to break opposition resistance. There was nothing Matt Gilks in the Blackpool goal could do about Defoe’s 89th-minute strike from 25 yards out, but it can’t have made the dropped points any less painful.
Knowing their final game of the season was away to champions Manchester United at Old Trafford, Blackpool would have been well aware that their penultimate match against Bolton Wanderers was a must-win clash. But the Tangerines had now gone nine games without a win and reverting to their high stakes all-out attacking game plan was the only option.
The Bolton game went according to the script, within ten minutes both sides had found the back of the net through DJ Campbell and Kevin Davies. Jason Puncheon and Matthew Taylor promptly made the score two all before half an hour had been played, and Blackpool secured a half time lead through another Campbell strike. Such first half chaos encapsulated the madness the Seasiders thrived on.
Daniel Sturridge equalised for Bolton before the hour mark, but Adam once again scored a decisive goal to earn Blackpool their first win in three months.
Sadly, the win wasn’t enough to keep Holloway’s side out of the bottom three, as they sat level on points with Wigan one place below in 19th and Birmingham City in 17th. Blackpool’s fate was to be decided by a final-day visit to the Champions Manchester United, a year to the day after securing promotion to the Premier League.
Realistically only victory would have resulted in Blackpool extending their stay in the top flight and United had dropped just two points at home all season. Ji Sung Park made the escape almost impossible when he opened the scoring for the hosts, but Nemanja Vidic offered a lifeline when he conceded a free kick on the edge of his own box on the stroke of half time. Charlie Adam stepped up and swept a low curling effort against to post past Edwin Van Der Sar to level the scores at half time.
After the break, Adam had another set-piece effort palmed away by United’s Dutch keeper, before Taylor-Fletcher found space in the box to steer a cross in off the post and send the away fans into delirium.
For five minutes Blackpool were up to 16th in the table and safe, but Anderson curled in an effort of his own to level proceedings and sent Holloway’s side back into the drop zone. But that would not be as painful as what was to come, Chris Smalling was given space deep on the right-hand side to rifle in a cross, and Ian Evatt inadvertently slid the ball past his own keeper.
Suddenly Blackpool had to find two goals in a quarter of an hour to avoid Championship football the following season. But it wasn’t to be, and Michael Owen compounded travelling fans misery in the 81st minute, ensuring an immediate return to the second division. Although, the fact the Tangerines were even able to make a fixture against arguably the second-best team in Europe entertaining was a microcosm for their entire season.
To this day they hold the record for the most goals scored by a relegated side with 55, notching as many as fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur managed that campaign. Blackpool may not have survived, but for pure unadulterated footballing theatre, no other Premier League side came close that season to the bonkers football their lunatic of a manager Ian Holloway cooked up.
