Blackpool 3 Cardiff City 2:BRETT ORMEROD was in a state of shock as he tried to come to terms with Blackpool's promotion to the Premier League and his €104 million goal. The forward kept using the word "surreal" before he came up with an interesting take on the club's extraordinary achievement. "It's unbelievable," he said. "It feels like we have landed on the moon without a rocket or a space helmet."
It was the sort of line manager Ian Holloway might have trotted out not so long ago. The Bristolian has always been good for a quip to lighten the mood and play up to his image as a part-time comedian. But over the past 12 months something has changed. Holloway is still a gregarious character but he has put away the joke book and reminded everyone, including himself, there is a decent football manager underneath it all.
Leicester fans might find that hard to accept after he presided over their relegation to League One two years ago, but winning promotion with a team who were tipped to finish in the bottom three at the start of the season and have the second-lowest wage bill in the division is no accident.
Despite twice falling behind, Blackpool’s belief never wavered as they played with wonderful abandon, taking the game to Cardiff with their fluid 4-3-3 formation and scoring three first-half goals. It was an explosive 45 minutes and Blackpool’s part in it owed much to the confidence Holloway instilled in his players.
“His pre-match team-talk was brilliant,” added Southern. “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. He told us this was our time . . . It was stirring stuff.”
The excellent Michael Chopra had hit the crossbar before drilling Cardiff in front and Blackpool’s limitations at the back were again exposed when Joe Ledley restored the Welsh club’s lead after Charlie Adam had executed a brilliant free-kick at the other end.
Could Blackpool really think about playing so openly in the Premier League and hope to survive? Swindon Town tried and failed in 1994. Holloway will surely not be so naive, yet when he talks about his attacking beliefs with such passion it is difficult to imagine him discarding the principles that have allowed Blackpool to play in the top flight for the first time since 1971.
This was also Cardiff’s chance to return to the top table after a lengthy absence, but manager Dave Jones and his players were left reflecting on a crushing defeat. Chopra struck the woodwork for a second time after the interval and Ledley’s glancing header drifted wide, but the damage was done in a four-minute spell before the interval when Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Ormerod capitalised on poor defending. “Very cheap goals,” cursed Cardiff’s Mark Kennedy.
There was, however, a reassuring message afterwards from Dato Chan Tien Ghee, the club’s prospective chairman, as he insisted Jones would remain in charge and vowed to complete a takeover.
Blackpool should now provide hope for every Championship club. Holloway talked about his players being “immortal” because of what they have achieved, although his own part in their fairytale will never be forgotten. It might also be remembered as the time when he became a football manager again. “There’s times to be funny and make people laugh in a bit of a stressful moment,” he said. “But I don’t need to show that to the rest of the world. I’ve stuck to the football this year.”
Guardian Service
BLACKPOOL:Gilks, Coleman, Baptiste, Evatt, Crainey, Vaughan (Bannan 90), Southern, Adam, Campbell, Taylor-Fletcher (Burgess 53), Ormerod (Dobbie 60). Subs not used:Rachubka, Clarke, Euell, Edwards.
CARDIFF CITY:Marshall, McNaughton (Gerrard 74), Blake, Hudson, Kennedy, Burke (McCormack 58), Ledley, McPhail, Whittingham, Chopra, Bothroyd (Etuhu 15). Subs not used:Enckelman, Capaldi, Quinn, Wildig.
Referee:Andre Marriner (W Midlands).
