Blackpool’s semi final second leg at St. Andrew’s displays what Ian Holloway’s outfit are all about; composed passing, creativity, clinical finishing and a obvious disregard for defensive responsibilities. After a narrow 1-0 win at Bloomfield Road which could actually have been a 4-0 lead in truth, The Tangerines swiftly surged into a 2-0 lead on the night after 48 minutes as impressive midfielder Matt Phillips highlighted his talent and Premier League potential to book their place to Wembley.
The fastest growing Hammers website is now on Facebook, click the link to be entered into our up and coming competitions http://www.facebook.com/pages/ForeverWestHamcom/200938616608282
However, Nikola Zigic grabbed a goal back to set in a wave of panic through the Tangerines defence and only nine minutes later Curtis Davies headed home from a corner to entice a thrilling final 15 minutes where Blackpool hung on for their lives.
Holloway came out to the media in an admission that it would practically take a miracle to beat West Ham when you bear in mind what Big Sam’s boys did to their fellow relegation victims from 2011 in both Championship games this season, implying that he really worries for his fragile defence up against an in-form Hammers squad.
Similarities may be displayed by both teams. On our day, both have the attacking capabilities to hurt teams and shed a host of goals past teams with experienced Premier League strikers to be found in the teams with Kevin Phillips and Carlton Cole.
Both clubs have sets of fans that are guaranteed to sing their hearts out for their football club, no matter what the score line may be.
Both teams have a promising blend of youthful vigour and energy combined with experience with Matt Phillips, Tom Ince, Chris Basham and Barry Ferguson against with our quartet of Mark Noble, Jack Collision, Matty Taylor and Kevin Nolan, promising a difficult final to predict or call!
Looking for experience? Just want to be heard outside of the Boleyn? We are currently looking for writers, drop us an email at foreverwestham@snack-media.com for more details
Finally, on their bad days, both defences are liable to shed goals. Blackpool conceding 3 in their defeats to Reading and Peterborough and 4 to our very own X11, twice. Big Sam has no doubt brought a calmness and maturity to a defence which was plagued with goal-leaking problems during our relegation campaign under Avram Grant. However, it must be noted that when we are in a losing position and been playing poorly, the defence has been known to cave in on the odd occasion, bringing back memories of both Reading games and our 5-1 defeat at Portman Road.
Both managers have play-off experience to draw upon, Holloway being successful on one occasion out of two attempts (losing with Bristol Rovers in the semi final and winning with Blackpool in 2010), whilst Allardyce has attempted the feat three times (being successful with Bolton Wanderers in 2001).
Neutrals appear split in their preference for which club to return to the top flight. Many want to see Blackpool just for Holloway’s entertaining pre and post match conferences on a regular basis, whilst most in the press admits that West Ham should by rights be a Premier League club based on their infrastructure, fan support, stadium size and squad capability.
However, such supposed rights mean nothing if all eleven players who put on the claret and blue shirt on May the 19th at Wembley do not play as if their careers depend on it in the same way we did so effectively against Preston in 2005 at Cardiff.
Ever dreamt about getting paid for reading about West Ham? Well now you can make dreams a reality http://bit.ly/ffc-foreverwestham
