THE SCOTS WHO MADE BLACKPOOL ROCK
Stephen Crainey on the ultimate Seaside adventure:
DISBELIEF and nervous hilarity would usually be considered uncomfortable reactions to a new manager’s opening address. When Ian Holloway’s unmistakable Bristolian burr delivered a dubious projection to the Blackpool squad in the summer of 2009, the outpouring of incredulity masked a dynamite prophecy.
The 16th best team in the previous season’s Championship were informed on day one of training: ‘We’re going to get promoted, we’re going to the Prem.’
‘We looked at each other and were laughing,’ recalls Stephen Crainey, one of five Scots who celebrated promotion to the English elite together at Wembley 10 months later.
Yet Crainey doesn’t even consider that memorable lecture as the No1 hit from Holloway’s speech repertoire that season. More about that chart-topper later.
On Friday, the ex-Celtic left-back will toast 10 years to the day that Blackpool defeated Cardiff 3-2 in the Play-off final.
As he thumbs through the scrapbooks and pores over DVD footage with children Renee, Farrah and Bannan, much of the pleasure will be derived from the fact the tale was so unexpected.
Holloway, out of work for one day shy of a year, returned to management with the Seasiders a changed man from the one who had left Leicester City under a relegation cloud.
Inspired by, among other things, studying Roberto Martinez’s Swansea City during his time out, Holloway ditched a default defensive strategy and went for buccaneering at Blackpool.
Whereas Crainey had been comfortable settling for safety at
Bloomfield Road after leaving Leeds United, Holloway soon had him and team-mates shooting for the stars. ‘Simon Grayson signed me in 2007 and the impression I got at the club was that survival in the Championship was good enough,’ explains Crainey. ‘The first couple of years were good after I had some injury problems at Leeds.
‘It was a great achievement for Blackpool at the time. Then Holloway came in, galvanised us and totally changed our mindset. ‘He got us playing some unbelievable football. I loved getting forward as a full-back, so the style of play was me down to a tee. ‘Holloway wanted us high and wide and getting forward, with midfielders covering if you lost possession.
‘We were tipped for relegation but I think the group were underestimated. We had some top players, a great blend who could do different things. ‘I’m not saying lads were taking a step back in their career but many of us felt we had to prove to ourselves — and others — how good we were.
‘The dynamics were spot on. That was down to Ian on the training field, working on structures which suited us individually.’
Off the pitch, watching motivational basketball film Coach
Carter, starring Samuel L. Jackson, as a group was just one masterstroke. Crainey adds: ‘The message was: “Do it for each other”. That if he can’t finish, make sure you do it for him.
‘It was to get us all together and believe in each other. And we did. We were motivated every day in training and in every game.
‘That intensity on a daily basis is the best I’ve experienced. The drive of the boys, individually, and the
demanding standards helped us every week. We all socialised together. In a big, big group.
‘Nowadays at clubs, they hang about in twos and threes. Ours was a close-knit changing room.
‘We went into lots of games knowing we were going to win. That is a surreal feeling in a league where there were many good teams.
‘Holloway was a manager who made you want to run through brick walls for him.’
He peppered priceless loan additions throughout, just at the right times. Barry Bannan from Aston Villa in November, Stephen Dobbie in January from promotion rivals Swansea, then a 21-year-old Irishman Seamus Coleman from Everton to bomb up the opposite flank from Crainey.
But the best bit of business had been completed back in August, with little time to spare before the season opener against QPR.
Charlie Adam, a loanee at Bloomfield Road in the second half of 2008-09, was finally prised from Rangers for a club-record £500,000.
Holloway wore down initial reticence from Adam, who clung to the belief he was more than good enough to remain a key figure at Ibrox. However, Walter Smith was content for the playmaker to leave and Blackpool pounced ahead of Preston to work a life-changing move and 19-goal season.
‘I was surprised Rangers let him go,’ says Crainey. ‘Charlie played in a lot of Old Firm and big European games. But less so the so-called smaller games in Scotland.
‘Which told me the manager trusted him enough to rely on him in big games. So it was a bit strange in that sense. Anyway, it turned out to be Rangers’ loss and Blackpool’s gain. What a star he was for the club.
‘I think he was good enough to play week in, week out at Rangers. Their manager thought differently but Charlie was at the stage where he
We watched the film Coach Carter starring Samuel L. Jackson and it got us believing in each other
wanted to play every week — and feel wanted. Holloway certainly gave him that.
‘I know I’m bumming Charlie right up because he does those bits of magic. But the other two midfielders — David Vaughan and Keith Southern — complemented it all.
‘Keith did the dirty work, won the ball, broke play up and gave it to Charlie. David was a wee magician on the ball with a great work rate off it.
‘All of that allowed Charlie and Dobbie to flourish. And Charlie had the x-factor on the ball.’
Blackpool lost only to runaway champions Newcastle in an 11-game streak leading to Wembley. The run included pinching a 1-0 win at Peterborough on the penultimate weekend of the regular season — ‘after that, I really felt something special was happening to us’ — and the wild 6-4 aggregate success over Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals.
In between times, the Pleasure Beach thrill ride of a 46-game regular season peaked at home to Bristol City.
A 1-1 draw saw Blackpool sneak ahead of Paulo Sousa’s Swansea by a point to reach the play-offs in sixth.
Crainey recalls: ‘We still had our strips on and had been out on the pitch when the manager told us: “Right, go to the Players’ Lounge and get your family and kids”.
‘We brought them all into the dressing room, everyone sat down nice and quiet and he gave the most unbelievable motivational speech I’ve ever seen or heard. To this day, it gives me shivers thinking about it.
‘He basically told us that we were going to do this for all the people we could see gathered around us, our families — and there was no way we were stopping now.
‘I thought: “I am going to do it for them. I am not going to let them down”. That’s the way it was. It was a great feeling.
‘The confidence was unbelievable. There was no stopping us. And we were always going to score goals — regardless of who we were up against.
‘Forest went ahead in both legs of the semi-final but we were always going to come back and win. And, sure enough in the final, Cardiff City went 1-0 up.’
The £90million final was a sweat for Crainey well before Michael
Chopra gave a City squad, which also featured five Scots, that ninthminute lead.
For the ginger lad from Kirkintilloch, it was all a bit much. ‘It was boiling hot — I remember seeing the pitchside temperature of 106,’ he says.
‘I came out the tunnel and, as well as the heat, they had put these big flamethrowers on. Being a redhead, that wasn’t great!’
Right on cue, Blackpool were behind for only four minutes because Adam struck a stunning free-kick from 25 yards.
Crainey reveals: ‘Me and Charlie were both on the set-plays, so I was standing right next to him and I said: “Charlie, you can have it. It’s too far out for me”.
‘He was probably going to hit it anyway but it’s a running joke between us. I’d taken a few that year, a wee bendy one or two.
‘But Charlie, with the sheer power and accuracy in that left foot and all sorts of swerve on the ball, was brilliant. What a free-kick it was.
Ian was a manager who you would run through brick walls for. Our confidence was unbelievable
‘David Marshall was in goal for Cardiff but even two keepers in goal that day wouldn’t have saved it. All the goals were scored in a first half that just flew past. I remember coming in at half-time and asking what the score was.’
Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Brett Ormerod’s goals trumped Joe Ledley’s second for Cardiff before Crainey’s addled mind took that break.
Blackpool saw out a sweltering second half to book their place in the top flight of English football for the first time in four decades.
For Crainey, 31 Premier League appearances and a start for Scotland against Brazil at the Emirates followed in 2010-11.
‘Getting that promotion was an incredible, unbelievable experience and achievement,’ says Crainey, now academy coach at Fleetwood Town.
‘We stayed in London for a massive party that night, I had lots of family and friends with me.
‘And, up until January in the Premier League, we played some marvellous football.
‘But I think the quality teams you’re playing against every week sussed us out and, unfortunately, we couldn’t combat that.
‘We got relegated with 39 points, a big total. And we got back to the Playoff final the following year before losing to West Ham. Those three years were the best of my career.’