Blackpool’s footballing heroes have taken part in a victory parade along the town’s promenade to celebrate their promotion to the Premier League.
The Seasiders won the Championship play-off against Cardiff on Saturday.
Thousands of fans lined the famous prom to greet manager Ian Holloway and his players for their triumphant homecoming.
More than 35,000 Blackpool fans travelled to Wembley for the final – a quarter of the town’s population.
The game, which the team won 3-2, was said to be worth £90m to the Lancashire club.
Blackpool Football Club Team Manager - Ian Holloway
A native of Kingswood, Bristol, Ian Holloway opted to manage in the North-West for the very first time when he agreed to become the new boss of the Seasiders on May 22, 2009.
The former Bristol Rovers and Queens Park Rangers midfielder became the permanent replacement for previous manager Simon Grayson, after Tony Parkes had initially taken caretaker charge for the remainder of the 2008-2009 campaign.
A popular figure with the media, Holloway started his managerial career with Bristol Rovers in 1996 while continuing as a player. His managerial education continued in 2001 when he was appointed the new manager of Queens Park Rangers, another one of his previous clubs. He was tasked with a near-impossible mission to keep QPR in the old Division One but the time wasn’t on his side as the team were relegated. Holloway returned to the division with QPR three seasons later but was placed on gardening leave in 2006 after constant speculation linking him with a move to Leicester City.
As the sun shone through at the Blackpool end of Wembley stadium, making for a picturesque scene of luminous tangerine, the shaded Cardiff City fans had to sit and endure their side twice lose the lead in a pulsating encounter where the stakes and the temperature could not have been higher.
It will be Ian Holloway’s Blackpool that will attempt to defy the odds and survive in the Premier League next season.
Michael Chopra’s early strike set the tone for an entertaining first half. Blackpool equalised through a sublime 25-yard free kick from playmaker Charlie Adam, but with Blackpool in the ascendancy Joe Ledley broke the offside trap to restore Dave Jones’ side’s advantage.
The Seasiders continued to press and drew level for the second time thanks to a Gary Taylor-Fletcher header. Brett Ormerod grabbed the winning goal just before the break, with a well-taken toe-poke.
Chopra hit the bar in the second half, but the day belonged to Blackpool, who will take their place in the top flight of English football for the first time since 1971.
Known within the media industry as ‘rent-a-quote’, Holloway’s enthusiastic and philosophical outlook on football usually grab all the headlines, but there is a side to Holloway which people rarely give him credit for. He is in fact a football manager with an abundance of talent.
This feat compares favourably with anything that has been achieved in British football over recent seasons, and Blackpool’s Keith Southern, who put in a towering performance on Saturday, revealed his manager’s team-talk before the final gave his side the edge.
“His pre-match team-talk was brilliant,” Southern told Skysports.
“He told us how he’d been out of football for a year and how hardly anyone in the game had talked to him, but how privileged he was to have got back with such a wonderful bunch of lads and how proud he was of us. There were quite a few of us close to tears. And he told us this was our time, that we were the team in form and that we were the team with the most belief. He said we deserved a crack at the big time as much as anyone. It was stirring stuff.”
The man everyone calls Ollie fully deserves his chance to be placed among the elite of English football, but he is entirely aware of the task that awaits him.
“I can’t be prouder of these boys, but I am going to have to be ruthless and think about what I’m going to do,” Holloway said.
“I might have to coach a different way. Chelsea and these teams will have to come to Bloomfield Road and they better have the right spirit because we will have a right go at them. It’s all about getting each individual to believe in themselves and shine.”
Ancelotti, Wenger and Ferguson, beware.
Blackpool 1 Blackburn Rovers 2
BRETT Emerton’s injury-time winner has given Blackburn Rovers their first away win of the Premier League campaign at Blackpool.
Matt Phillip’s 85th minute equaliser looked to have earned Blackpool an unlikely point at Bloomfield Road as Rovers were again made to pay for their wastefulness.
Charlie Adams’ freak own goal handed Rovers the half time advantage in this afternoon’s Premier League Lancashire derby.
Rovers, who had not won in the league since the opening day of the season and were knocked out of the Carling Cup by Aston Villa in midweek, had let leads slip in four previous games this season and looked certain to do so again in a remarkable finale.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/9023206.stm
Blackpool have announced that Karl Oyston has resigned as chairman and a director of the newly promoted Premier League club with immediate effect.
Oyston will stay on as acting chief executive until the end of the season or until a replacement is found.
The club emphasised that his departure would not affect player recruitment or the upgrade of Bloomfield Road.
Oyston, 43, has previously admitted to being disillusioned with player agents’ influence in the Premier League.
He revealed earlier in August that he had told the club’s board that he would resign if they disagreed with his approach to the club’s return to the top flight.
Premier League newcomers Blackpool had a dream start to their campaign as they beat a Wigan team in disarray.
The Tangerines were 3-0 up at half-time, with Gary Taylor-Fletcher side-footing them into a deserved lead.
Livewire Marlon Harewood added a second with a 22-yard shot and also slotted in after Elliot Grandin had an effort parried by goalkeeper Chris Kirkland.
Steve Gohouri had a header disallowed for Wigan before Alex Baptiste’s cross inadvertently added Blackpool’s fourth.
Wigan were comfortably beaten and it was the home side which looked more like the Premier League debutants than the more assured Blackpool, who were making their return to the top flight for the first time since 1971.
Until Chelsea beat West Brom 6-0 in the later kick-off, the three points had also put Blackpool top of the table for the first time since the opening day of the 1957/58 season.
Tangerines manager Ian Holloway had, in his own inimitable style, played down his side’s chances ahead of the game as he questioned whether he had a team capable of surviving in the Championship, let alone among English football’s elite.
But, with eight of the mainstays of last season and three new signings drafted in as late as this week, the visitors overwhelmed a lethargic Wigan side that was missing Charles N’Zogbia to such a degree that the Latics were booed by their own fans.
Blackpool’s first top-flight appearance since 1971 turned into one of the most memorable in their entire history as they demolished Wigan 4-0 to go top of the Premier League at the DW Stadium.
New-boy Marlon Harewood scored twice after Gary Taylor-Fletcher had put the visitors in front. Alex Baptiste profited from more wretched goalkeeping by Chris Kirkland to ensure Wigan were well and truly turned over.
Blackpool’s performance was made all the more remarkable by the knowledge Harewood, along with Elliot Grandin and the sturdy Craig Cathcart, were not even at Bloomfield Road at the start of the week.
Gaping holes were evident from the second minute, when Brett Ormerod twice failed to turn home relatively simple chances from the centre of the six-yard box, while Harewood also put a header wide as the sense of foreboding among the home support grew.
When the excellent Charlie Adam found Harewood, Ormerod made his way across the box, dragging a couple of defenders with him before allowing the ball to run on to Taylor-Fletcher at the far-post, who tapped in.
Harewood tried his luck from the edge of the area and Kirkland appeared to have the effort covered but somehow allowed the ball to slip through his gasp, which gave the Tangerines a 2-0 lead.
Two minutes before the break Kirkland failed to hold a Grandin effort and Harewood tapped home the rebound.
That Wigan improved after the break was not saying much – but they still failed to score and Blackpool extended their lead.
Baptiste caught Kirkland out with a shot from the touchline that crept in the near-post, it left them looking down on Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and the rest.
Those big boys had not played of course. But no-one really cared about that.
Blackpool’s chairman has confirmed that his players have finally been given their bonuses for winning promotion to the Premier League in May.
Reports suggested some of the squad were unhappy at returning to pre-season training having still not been paid.
“I don’t know if it caused dissent but we didn’t get the first chunk of Premier League money until Thursday,” Karl Oyston told the Blackpool Gazette.
“The players have received it. I’m delighted. I think they deserved it.”
The Seasiders secured promotion to the top flight after beating Cardiff 3-2 in a play-off match that was said to be worth £90m to the winning club.
Oyston added: “Maybe one or two players thought we’d be there handing them a bagful of money as they walked off the pitch.”
Blackpool have signed frontman Marlon Harewood to complete a remarkable day of transfer activity that saw five new arrivals join the Seasiders.
Free agent Harewood, 30, has signed a two-year-deal ahead of Blackpool’s Premier League debut season.
Meanwhile, Manchester United’s Northern Ireland defender Craig Cathcart, 21, joined for an undisclosed fee.
And the Seasiders also acquired French trio Ludovic Sylvestre, 26, Elliot Grandin, 22, and Malaury Martin, 21.
Ex-Barcelona trainee Sylvestre joins from Czech side Mlada Boleslav, former Marseille player Grandin from CSKA Sofia and Martin was last with Monaco.
Cathcart never played for United’s first team but spent time on loan at Royal Antwerp, Watford and Plymouth.
Blackpool manager Ian Holloway has bolstered his squad with his first four signings of the summer.
Defender Craig Cathcart, 21, joined the top-flight newcomers from Manchester United for an undisclosed fee on a three-year contract.
Holloway also signed three midfielders – Ludovic Sylvestre, 26, from Czech side Mlada Boleslav, 22-year-old Frenchman Elliot Grandin and 21-year-old Malaury Martin, who has been capped by France at youth level.
At a press conference to unveil the players, Holloway ridiculed rumours he was about to leave.
“I just want to make sure you can see me here and I’m not a cardboard cut-out, because somehow or other I’m not supposed to be here,” he said.
Blackpool will make a second contract offer to Ian Holloway after the Seasiders boss dismissed their opening bid.
Holloway, 47, rejected their first offer, believed to be worth around £200,000-a-year, out of hand and is holding out for a pay rise which reflects his achievement in leading Blackpool to the Premier League for the first time.
His current deal expires this summer, although the club claim he will not be out of contract because there is a clause for a one-year extension.
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Frustrated-Ian-Holloway-rejects-Blackpool-s-contract-offer-as-negotiations-stall-article473083.html
WHILE most of the country were happy to celebrate Blackpool’s promotion to the Premier League last weekend, Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce will always have bad memories of the way his time at Bloomfield Road ended.
When Rovers face the Seasiders in the top flight, it will represent Allardyce’s first competitive reunion for 11 years with the club that controversially chose to sack him in 1996. Victory, it is likely, would mean that something extra.
In Allardyce’s final season at Blackpool, the Tangerines finished in their highest league position for 18 years.
They ended the 1995/96 campaign third in the third tier of English football – then called the Second Division – missing out on automatic promotion to Oxford on the last day of the season.
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/8192619.It_s_time_for_Sam_to_tower_over_Blackpool/?ref=mr
The club that gave English football Matthews, Ball, Mortenson and Armfield will now write a new chapter in its glorious history.
Even the most loyal Lancastrian will read the next sentence twice. Blackpool have won promotion to the Premier League.
They’ve reached the top flight by showing a never-say-die spirit to fight back twice and finally overcome brave Cardiff in one of the finest play-off deciders ever seen at Wembley or Cardiff.
Ian Holloway, the manager who mixes homespun West Country logic with the sharp eye of a tactical magician, inspired his team to their ultimate glory. His team started this season as favourites to get out of the Championship – by being relegated!
They ended it at Wembley Way in a promotion triumph. One of the lowest paid squads in their division will share a bumper £5m bonus pay-out.
In his first season at Bloomfield Road, Holloway vowed that his team would play attacking football. He stayed true to his word, even when the stakes were this high – a £90m showdown for the right to join the Premier League.
The Seasiders had to be tenacious. After just 13 minutes a goal had gone in at either end as Michael Chopra opened the scoring for Cardiff and Charlie Adam found the net with a stunning free-kick for Blackpool.
Perhaps someone should have told the two sides to bring a defence along for good measure.
If you thought there was immense pressure riding on the shoulders of the managers then spare a thought for the two keepers who, quite frankly, must have been frightened out of their minds behind these defences.
Quite how the scoreline remained deadlocked at 1-1 until the 37th minute of the first half defied belief.
But once Joe Ledley raced on to Peter Whittingham’s through ball to put Cardiff back in front with eight minutes of the half remaining, more goals were to inevitably follow before the first period drew to a close.
Cardiff, who last played top-flight football 48 years ago, looked increasingly vulnerable as Blackpool poured forward. And their fragile defence fell apart.
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Blackpool-3-2-Cardiff-Ian-Holloway-s-heroes-land-90-million-Premier-League-jackpot-The-Sunday-Mirror-match-report-article434327.html
Brett Ormerod hit the £90million goal to fire Blackpool to the most lucrative, and unlikeliest, of promotions to the Premier League.
The unfashionable Lancashire side, who were in the bottom division just nine years ago, will now be rubbing shoulders with Chelsea and Manchester United next season after a thrilling 3-2 Wembley victory over Cardiff in the Coca-Cola Championship final.
Cardiff, bidding to become the first Welsh side in the Premier League, led twice through strikes from Michael Chopra and Joe Ledley but they were pegged back by Charlie Adam and Gary Taylor-Fletcher before veteran frontman Ormerod cracked the winner in first-half stoppage time.
The final whistle signalled the end of an incredible season for Blackpool and Holloway, who will now realise his dream of managing in the Premier League.
The popular boss commiserated with his good friend and Cardiff manager Dave Jones before joining the disbelieving tangerine hordes in their celebrations.
IAN Holloway’s men have achieved the impossible dream.
Brett Ormerod’s first-half winner ensured a fairytale victory for Blackpool in the play-off final and secured the most lucrative promotion in the history of English football.
The Seasiders twice come from behind to lead 3-2 at the break and clinch a place in the Barclays Premier League estimated to be worth £90million.
Michael Chopra put Cardiff ahead but Charlie Adam levelled with a free-kick for his 19th goal of the season before Joe Ledley restored the Welsh club’s advantage with a neat finish.
Yet the energy and desire that has been so evident in Ian Holloway’s side throughout the campaign again came to the fore as Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Ormerod struck from close range shortly before the break to put Blackpool in front.
Ormerod’s 13th goal of the season – undoubtedly the most important strike of the 33-year-old’s long career – gave the Seasiders an advantage they did not surrender.