Blackpool have been relegated back to the Championship after only on season in the top flight. That in itself only tells half the story of the rollercoaster of a season that Tangerine fans have been through, with their side taking the Premier League by storm in the first phase before reality caught up with the in the final stages, when it became clear that their defence just wasn’t good enough for this level. Ian Holloway had brought in a lot of reinforcements at the start of the season, but only a few of them, such as Elliott Grandin or Craig Cathcart, durably made their way to the first team. The Tangerine boss relied mostly on the players that had seen Blackpool promoted, with Charlie Adam and David Vaughan at the heart of midfield. Alex Baptiste, Ian Evatt, Neal Eardley and Stephen Crainey were fixtures in defence throughout the season. In the attack, Holloway brought in DJ Campbell and Luke Varney in September, along with Matt Phillips and Marlon Harewood. Crowd favourite Brett Ormerod only managed six starts but Gary Taylor Fletcher featured for most of the campaign up-front along with Campbell and Varney. The Seasiders started the season with a resounding 4-0 win at Wigan and never looked back until Christmas, by which time they had five away wins to their name. They had to wait till November for their first home win and did struggle to make the weight against top sides but their bold style of play, impersonated by their captain Charlie Adam, won them many admirers. World Cup keeper Richard Kingson was brought in provide back up for in goal and the Ghana international was soon called upon soon after Matt Gilks suffered an injury in mid November. They had early Cup exits but were rather comfortably installed in mid-table at the start of the second phase of the season, when Holloway brought in a number of reinforcements, of which only Jason Puncheon had a real impact. Gradually, results took a turn for the worse. They were unable to win any away games in 2011 and always struggled to impose themselves at home, not aided by an increasingly porous defence. They remained exciting to watch with Campbell and Adam their main threats upfront in a bold 4-3-3 often employed by Holloway. However, their defence kept leaking goals and they often lost games from winning positions. The drop zone finally caught up with them in last five weeks of the season, on the back of a dreadful nine-game winless streak. They did give themselves a good chance of survival with a gutsy home win over Bolton in the penultimate game of the campaign but had to go to champions-elect Manchester Utd for the final game. In spite of taking the lead at Old Trafford, they finally had to concede defeat and accept the reality of relegation back to the Championship.
