A View From The Other Side - Blackpool

On Sunday City travel to the seaside to face Blackpool. It's fair to say The Tangerines were most pundits tips for relegation this season. Understandable, given that this is their first season in the top flight since 1971.

Last season they were favourites to be relgated from The Championship, but ended up in the play-offs, sealing promotion after a thrilling Wembley win against Cardiff City.

Sitting in ninth place after seven games, it's fair to say Blackpool have surprised many already this season. The opening day win at Wigan was impressive, and left the seasiders on cloud nine. The 6-0 defeat at Arsenal a week later may have brought them back down to Earth with a bump.

Manager Ian Holloway has vowed to continue playing the attractive football that saw them promoted. Some critics have suggested that this is a naive way of approaching the Premier League. To see when sticking to your principles can get you relegated, see West Brom and Burnley. But Holloway is determined to play his way and as long as heavy defeats at the likes of Chelsea can be countered by victories against the Newcastles of the league then Blackpool should be fine. The trick, as Hull City fans may tell you, is keeping that form throughout the season.

Fresh from a win at Liverpool, Blackpool will surely be confident on Sunday. City should definitely not expect an easy ride.

To get a view on how Blackpool fans are seeing the season so far, and thoughts for the game on Sunday, I asked Tangerine supporter Adam Ogden a few questions. Many thanks to Adam for this. You can see his answers below.

Ciao,

Richard

http://twitter.com/RichardTheBurns

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W.A.D: Most pundits/fans had Blackpool as relegation favourites this season (I’ll admit I was one of them). Realistically, what were your expectations for Blackpool this season?

Adam: Realistically we shouldn’t even be in this division. We still very much have the players, finances and attitude of the League One club we used to be. But as has been said before, when it comes to playing matches, none of that matters. I always thought we had a chance (albeit slim) of staying up – but we’d have to play out of our skins to do it.

W.A.D: Are you happy with your start to the season?

Adam: In the words of Ian Holloway I’m chuffed as a badger with how we’ve started. The best away record in the league, three big wins under our belt and a victory at Anfield – what’s more we’re still playing really well and proving we deserve to be in the Premier League.

W.A.D: Plenty of teams come up to the Premier League promising to “play football”. Burnley and Mowbray’s West Brom team are notable examples, and they both went straight down. Holloway has promised to continue with the attacking football that got your promoted. Is he naïve thinking this can keep you in the top flight, or is to be commended for sticking to his principles?

Adam: Not at all, we got into the Premiership through scoring more goals than the opposition, so it’s only right that we should stay in it this way. I’d much rather see us lose 6-0 to Arsenal playing good football than grind out dull nil nil draws like Blackburn and Stoke. If that sees us go down, then at least we’ll have left a good impression on the league.

W.A.D: Who is your all time favourite Blackpool player?

Adam: It’s tough to name an all time favourite. The regular contenders, Matthews, Mortensen and Armfield were all before my time and until recent years the calibre hasn’t been that great. For that reason I can only give it to one of the current crop of players, and after being with us from the bottom of League One up to our brief two hours on top of the Premier League, Keith Southern takes it for me, with Super Brett Ormerod in a close second.

W.A.D: Who is your favourite in the current team?

Adam: It’s hard to have a single favourite player at the moment – for it’s our team effort which is doing so well. Gilks and Taylor-Fletcher have dumbfounded everyone with the extra quality they’ve found this year, David Vaughan and Alex Baptiste are pure quality players and DJ and Charlie are our ultimate talisman. And all the others make an equally large contribution.

W.A.D: And if you could get rid of one player, who would it be?

Adam: What a cruel question! I genuinely couldn’t name anyone. One of the downsides of having such a brilliant team spirit is that you don’t want to get rid of anyone. Seven games into the season and nobody has let us down at all yet.

W.A.D: Who is Blackpool’s dangerman on Sunday? Anybody City should be particularly fearful of?

Adam: As I said before, it’s the team as a whole that City should be worried about. However, after the Liverpool game and his brilliant second half for Scotland against Spain, Charlie Adam is in lethal form at the bottom. City is the type of big game that he’ll want to turn up for, and when he turns up he is unstoppable.

W.A.D: And is there any one player in the City team you fear?

Adam: One? There are about 26 that I’m worried about! But I’m keeping myself sane in the knowledge that they’re all still human beings and off days do happen. I am however really excited to see Joe Hart back home at Bloomers. He was magnificent with us back in League One and I’m convinced that without him, we may never have got where we are now. He’ll get a massive welcome from every seasider.

W.A.D: Looking at City for a moment then, the rest of the country has had to sit back and watch City splash the cash over the last couple of years. First of all, what are your feelings on the impact this has on the game? And secondly, what are your expectations for City this season?

Adam: Without getting on my high horse too much, I think it’s absolutely disgraceful that people can get paid £100k a week just for playing football, let alone £200k. Nobody at Blackpool gets paid over £10k a week, and that’s how it should be. They are still only people in the same way as cleaners and teachers. I don’t think it’s entirely City’s fault however, the huge amounts of money across the whole game has meant that if you don’t invest heavily then you’ll get left behind. This season may be too early for City though. Despite the result earlier in the year, Chelsea look much too strong for me – although I think City will come in a close second.

W.A.D: Finally, score prediction for Sunday?

Adam: I don’t even dare to predict a result against us anymore. As a team Pool are capable of anything these days and blow me over I think we’re going to at least get a point, maybe even three. However, so as to not to be completely embarrassed should it go wrong I’ll go for a conservative 2-2.