The article in full........
FOOTBALL
Blackpool rollercoaster is Wembley-bound – with a play-off record on the table
United under a dedicated new owner and with the fans firmly back on side, Blackpool are chasing their sixth play-off success after decade of disappointment
Adam Lanigan
Thursday May 27 2021, 5.00pm BST, The Times
Blackpool have endured several relegations, legal battles and a fan boycott since their exit from the Premier League ten years ago
For anyone driving into Blackpool, the horizon is marked by the town’s iconic Tower and the Big One, the giant rollercoaster that dominates the resort’s Pleasure Beach. So there is something apt in how the fortunes of the town’s football team, situated a short walk from the seafront, mirror that of the rollercoaster of dizzying highs and steepling falls.
There was the glory of the Matthews FA Cup final in 1953 to years in the doldrums before that mad thrill ride to the Premier League under Ian Holloway and the ignominy in the seasons that followed.
Now the League One club has reconnected with its fanbase and is on the rise again under a passionate new owner and a highly regarded manager. That united front will be on show at Wembley on Sunday afternoon when they take on Lincoln City and aim for a record-breaking sixth promotion via a play-off final.
It is now ten years since their one season in the top flight, which ended in glorious failure. They began with a 4-0 win at Wigan Athletic, did the double over Liverpool and beat Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham Hotspur, all in thrilling fashion, before a 4-2 defeat at Manchester United on the final day sent them down but left neutrals wanting more and mourning their relegation.
Yet the Blackpool journey was heading for the darkest depths as the relationship between the club’s supporters and its owners, the Oyston family, hit rock bottom.
In 2015, they were relegated to League One in a season in which they used 50 players and had their last game abandoned after a pitch invasion, infamously including one spectator on a mobility scooter, as fans protested about how their beloved club was being run. Many felt there was only one course of action: boycotting their own club as part of the ‘Not a penny more’ campaign.
There was a long-running view that the Oystons had siphoned money off from their Premier League days and a high-court ruling in 2017, brought by former shareholder Valeri Belokon, showed that nearly £27 million had been illegitimately stripped from the club.
Sadler has brought the club together after the farcical ownership of the Oyston family
But after four long years away, which included relegation to and promotion from League Two, those staying away returned after the successful takeover of the club by Simon Sadler, a Blackpool-born businessman and Tangerine to the core.
Now pride has been restored to the club. After years of neglect, the pitch and training facilities have been given much needed makeover, while the appointment of the former Liverpool Under-23 boss Neil Critchley as manager in March 2020 has resulted in a huge upturn, with the team finishing the season third — ahead of bigger clubs such as Sunderland, Portsmouth and Charlton Athletic.
Critchley had developed Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones and Nat Phillips at Liverpool, but with four points from their opening seven games, Blackpool were lying 23rd and there were question marks over the summer rehaul he had overseen.
The possibility of Championship football seemed far-fetched, but the captain and goalkeeper Chris Maxwell explains that the view from inside the camp was different. “There was no doubt in my mind that we had something special here and it was just a matter of time before it clicked — and it has done,” he says.
“The performances were there to be seen, we were creating chances and performing well. We had a made couple of individual mistakes and had not played together that much. But with the manager’s attention to detail it was inevitable, with the talent and character we had in this club, the penny was going to drop sooner rather than later.
“The manager is a real grafter and he leads by example in terms of the approach he takes to each game. But not only that, he’s a manager that players can speak to and open up to. He’s very honest and he’s a really good guy. With all of that and the philosophy he has instilled in us, it’s a pleasure working for him.
“With how we are as a group and as players, this is what we expected. We wanted to put ourselves in a position to have a successful season and we’ve given ourselves a great opportunity. Blackpool is a massive club and it should be in the Championship. I think it will get that sooner rather than later. Hopefully we can do it on Sunday.”
While Critchley has been leading the revival on the pitch, Sadler has been an enthusiastic backer off it, and the owner joined in the celebrations after the second leg of the semi-final with Oxford United had assured their place at Wembley.
In a period in which owners of leading English clubs have been vilified, it was refreshing to hear Sadler’s name being joyously sung around Bloomfield Road, along with that of Critchley and many of the players.
The club showed its renewed sense of community in the wake of Banks’s tragic passing
Living in the area after his time at Fleetwood Town and Preston North End, Maxwell had an idea of the unrest that the previous regime had caused, but ever since he joined in January last year, he has felt only positivity and unity around the club.
“It was pretty clear to me when I signed that Blackpool were trying to be successful with plenty of ambition,” he recalls. “Everyone is desperate for the club to be successful. It’s no secret the hard times that were here before, and the divide that was within the town before Simon Sadler came in. Now everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.
“The owner is in love with his club and he’s desperate for us to be successful. To have him there congratulating us after the game was special for him and it was also special for us.”
The football club’s role at the heart of the community has also been noted in how everyone has come together after the tragic death this month of nine-year-old Jordan Banks. He was struck by lightning while out playing football, and Blackpool’s players wore T-shirts in his memory before the Oxford tie.
“Blackpool is a very close community and people stick together here,” Maxwell says. “You only have to see the convoy that went down the promenade to show the support for Jordan’s family.
“I’ve got a young child myself so for something like that to happen is heart-breaking. We showed before and during the Oxford game that Jordan was in our thoughts and he will be in our thoughts going into Sunday’s game.”
League One play-off final
Blackpool v Lincoln City
Sunday, 3pm, Wembley Stadium
TV Sky Sports Football/Main Event
www.thetimes.co.uk
but I am so so proud of Blackpool as a town and community for the compassion and empathy showed. 
