Chris Brown
Tangerine
I’VE followed Blackpool FC since the day my uncle came over from the home island, the Isle of Man, on the steamer and brought me to Bloomfield Rd for the fixture against QPR as a six year old.
I remember the raucous noise when we equalised and the howls of “he’s on” from the voices that knew better than the ref, bald but not in the designer kind of way of today’s officials, who called our player offside near the end.
That was 1967 and since then no league game has been bigger or more important for our club than this one. United, the world’s most famous football club, winners of a record 19 league titles, at Old Trafford, as we play to stay in the most wonderful place football provides, the Premiership.
Blackpool can win and still go down, can lose and still stay up. Unbelievable. This is survival Sunday and whoever writes the script got this one right!
We go into ‘Mission Impossible’ in good form. Unbeaten in our last four games, including the brilliant 4-3 win against Bolton Wanderers (I wonder how many noticed, as Gary Lineker did on Match of the Day, the significance of that scoreline on FA Cup Final day?) and we aren’t going into this game to doff any caps to anyone.
Game Over
THIS is an article of two halves, well it is about football, and as you may guess the first was written before kick-off. Things now look very different and not just because I have been on the beer all afternoon; the hard fact is that we’ve been relegated and it’s starting to cut deep into my soul, and if I’m honest tears are not far away.
Anyone who watched our big game at the Theatre of Dreams, and I hope ye all did, will surely realise that Blackpool FC played their part in an enthralling game.
We scored twice, hit the woodwork, should’ve had a penalty for a clear handball, and missed three or four very good presentable chances.
But I’m not bemoaning our luck, after all the goal that put us up 2-1 up was offside, as everyone knows that’s just the way things go. Statistically we had 51 per cent possession and both sides took eight corners but, after that, being equal ends.
We are a team from the west coast, a seaside resort; United are a big city club, a great club. It’s been a privilege to be their opponents on such a special occasion, a brilliant day for everybody, and I wish them well in the European Cup final.
The hardest thing about going down is that the best side we’ve had in forty years will start to disband: nobody expects Charlie Adam to be pulling on a tangerine shirt next season and it’s very possible to go through the Championship like a dose of salts. Just ask fans of Charlton Athletic, Southampton, Norwich, both Sheffield clubs to name a few.
Our visit to the Premiership has been absolutely brilliant, and we have given a good account of ourselves. In the 38 Premiership games involving Blackpool no fewer than 133 goals were scored, the most in this league.
With a team on small wages but with big hearts, I’m proud that the game was played as it should be: entertainingly. I think the Premiership will miss us, but not as much as we will miss the Premiership.
So it’s back to playing Burnley for us. It might be quite some time before the big weekend game on telly features the Pool!
Forever a Seasider, Seasiders forever.
