Holloway delights in proving the critics wrong

Before the season started I confidently predicted that Blackpool would be relegated and, if memory serves me correct, I think I said they would probably get less points than anyone else ever had in Premier League history.

Survive

I didn’t say all that with any relish because I like the club, like the team and love the manager. I wanted them to be successful but just couldn’t see any way that they could survive.

If I’m honest, I still think they will go down, but goodness me, what a fantastic start they have made.

OK, Monday night’s 2-1 win over nine man West Brom was hardly a performance that will live in the memory, but it does mean that after ten games they sit in ninth place in the table with thirteen points, already four points clear of the bottom three.

Crashing

One of my two predictions came crashing down on Monday as the previous record low number of points was held by Derby at eleven. Blackpool have passed that figure and still have twenty-eight games to play.

Manager Ian Holloway was delighted to rub that fact in the noses of all of us who wrote that about them at the start of the season.

“The lowest points ever, we aren’t going to be that team so shut up the lot of you, whoever wrote it. That’s what I feel like. It’s unfair. They judged us far too early. I think we’re a good bunch of lads, we’re a good team. I think we’ve got to improve, I think we’ll try to, but that’s thirteen points in ten games. They might be the only thirteen points we get but you said we were only going to get ten.”

Relegated

Earlier in the week reports suggested that Holloway had said that he wouldn’t mind if Blackpool got relegated this season. The boss went on to say that was not true and that he was fed up of the media taking what he said out of context.

“If people want to give my fans the message I’m happy going down, I didn’t say that. I would never say that. Listen to what I say and don’t switch it around. I would never be happy going down and I don’t think we will. Everybody else does. When you weigh up the facts, we had to build a ground, smallest budget by a mile, probably the worst team ever to come up, probably going to get the least points ever. Just keep adding it up. Fantastic. It’s all stacked against us, I don’t have a problem with that. But when I say something, don’t switch it. I don’t like that. Maybe I won’t say anything in the future. Is that what you want?”

The answer to that last question is an emphatic no. Holloway is good value for the media and it would be a disaster if he ‘did a Redknapp’ and refused interviews.

Harsh

In Monday night’s game Blackpool took the lead after just eleven minutes when Charlie Adam converted a penalty following a foul by Pablo Ibanez that saw the West Brom defender shown a red card. By the letter of the law the referee was probably right to show the card but it was certainly harsh. Holloway thought so even though the decision was a major boost for his side.

“The referee had to do it by the book and the book is wrong. The game was dead then.”

West Brom were reduced to nine men on the half hour when Gonzalo Jara was dismissed for a horror tackle.

Luke Varney made the game safe in the second half although West Brom did grab a late consolation to give Holloway and his men a nervous last five minutes.