If you're in the same division as Blackpool - particularly if you're based in the North West of England - one of the first fixtures you look for when they're published in June is your trip to Bloomfield Road. How typical then that we go there in December - the last Saturday before Christmas, no less.
It hasn't been much better any time in living memory. Last time was in April, but on a Tuesday night; the time before that was early February. And those have been our only trips to Blackpool since 1975.
At least Albion's record against the Seasiders is reasonably good:
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | |
| Home | 38 | 22 | 6 | 10 | 88 | 47 | 41 |
| Away | 38 | 13 | 6 | 19 | 46 | 60 | -14 |
| Total |
76 |
35 | 12 | 29 | 134 | 107 | 27 |
Albion and Blackpool were frequent opponents between 1901 and 1976 (more of which later), but since we won promotion back to the First Division under Johnny Giles this is only the third season that we've been in the same division. Here's the recent(ish) record:
| 2007/8 | Championship | Albion | 2 | 1 | Blackpool | Blackpool | 1 | 3 | Albion | W | W |
| 1992/3 | Division 2 | Albion | 3 | 1 | Blackpool | Blackpool | 2 | 1 | Albion | W | L |
| 1975/6 | Division 2 | Albion | 0 | 0 | Blackpool | Blackpool | 0 | 1 | Albion | D | W |
| 1974/5 | Division 2 | Albion | 2 | 0 | Blackpool | Blackpool | 2 | 0 | Albion | W | L |
| 1973/4 | Division 2 | Albion | 1 | 1 | Blackpool | Blackpool | 2 | 3 | Albion | D | W |
| 1970/1 | Division 1 | Albion | 1 | 1 | Blackpool | Blackpool | 3 | 1 | Albion | D | L |
| 1966/7 | Division 1 | Albion | 3 | 1 | Blackpool | Blackpool | 1 | 3 | Albion | W | W |
You will notice that on the last seven occasions, we've won and lost alternating games at Bloomfield Road. The bad news is that this year, it's our turn to lose.
Our last visit to Bloomfield Road was just three days after after the FA Cup semi-final defeat against Portsmouth, towards the end of our Championship-winning season in 2008. We'd slipped to fourth place after an inconsistent run of twelve games starting on New Year's Day (when we'd lost 2-0 at Ipswich), but had just started what turned out to be an unbeaten sequence of nine games to end the season. Blackpool were unbeaten at home since before Christmas (this was the 8th of April), although they hadn't won in their previous six games - of which they'd drawn five and lost one.
On the night (it was a Tuesday), Ben Burgess put the Seasiders ahead just before half time, but just in the nick of time, three goals in six minutes turned the game around for Albion. First Kevin Phillips scored from the penalty spot after Carl Hoefkens was brought down; Phillips put the Baggies ahead three minutes later; and with three minutes to go, Ishmael Miller made it safe with a stunning left-foot drive.
At The Hawthorns the previous October, Miller had put Albion ahead midway through the first half, but Blackpool had equalised shortly afterwards; there were only eleven minutes left when James Morrison got the winner for Albion - a spectacular 20-yard volley.
Blackpool: club historyBlackpool FC was formed in 1887 by old boys of St. John's School. They were elected to Division 2 of the Football League in 1896, but ejected three years later after failing either to achieve any success on the field or to generate any real interest among their local public.
The following summer they merged with their local rivals South Shore, whom Albion had beaten 8-0 in the FA Cup the previous season and who were the incumbent tenants of the Bloomfield Road ground - where the club has been based ever since. They were re-admitted to the Football League immediately, but they remained in Division 2 until 1930. Relegated after only three years, they won a second promotion in 1938 and this time they stayed in the First Division for 28 years and what was undoubtedly their golden age.
Stanley Matthews was stationed near Blackpool with the RAF during the Second World War, and had made guest appearances for the Seasiders (as well as several other clubs). In 1947, aged 32, he was persuaded to move officially from Stoke City. The following season Blackpool reached the FA Cup final for the first time, losing 4-2 to Manchester United (themselves there for only the second time - their first having been in 1909). Three years later, in 1951, Blackpool were runners-up again, losing this time to Newcastle United; but in 1953, both Stanley Matthews and Blackpool won their first major trophies when they famously beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3, after being 3-1 down with half an hour to go. The match would ever afterwards be known as the Matthews final, despite the efforts of the other Stanley - Mortenson - who scored the only FA Cup Final hat-trick of the twentieth century.
In 1956 Blackpool finished as runners-up in the First Division, which is (and probably always will be) their highest ever League placing. Five years later Matthews, now aged 46, returned to Stoke City. But Blackpool were still a team to be reckoned with - their captain was Jimmy Armfield, voted the best right-back in Europe at the time, and in 1962 they gave a debut to a young midfielder called Alan Ball (who'd been turned down by two lots of Wanderers - Wolverhampton and Bolton).
Ball's finest hour came in 1966 of course; but he joined Everton immediately afterwards, and this really did spell the end of Blackpool's golden age. Still captained by Armfield, they finished bottom of the First Division in 1967 and were relegated. They were back three years later, but finished bottom again, and 1970-1 was their last season to date in the top flight.
Seven years later they were relegated to the Third Division for the first time - only thirteen years before Albion suffered the same fate. Unlike Albion they failed to recover however, and over the next thirty years they even spent seven seasons in the Fourth (in three separate spells, the last being 2000-1).
Blackpool's managerial history over the past fifteen years or so suggests a club that could pick a promising young manager: Sam Allardyce (1994-6), Gary Megson (1996-7), Nigel Worthington (1997-9), Steve McMahon (2000-4), Colin Hendry (2004-5), Simon Grayson (2005-8). For all of these except McMahon it was their first managerial post (not counting Megson's short spell as caretaker at Norwich).
It was under Grayson, in 2007, that they won promotion back to the second level (The Championship) for the first time in 29 years, when they beat Yeovil in the play-off finals after finishing third. In 2008 Blackpool finished 19th, but in December of that year Grayson moved to Leeds after the demise of Gary McAllister.
Tony Parkes, previously assistant to Grayson, took over as caretaker manager (as he'd previously done several times at Blackburn) for the remainder of last season, and Blackpool finished 16th. This was exactly where they'd been when Grayson left; it was their highest finish since 1971, when they last played in the top flight, and they were ten points clear of relegation. But Parkes left in the summer after a dispute over finances, and he was replaced by Ian Holloway.
Club President Valeri Belokon promised to back Holloway with transfer funding, and in August Blackpool broke their transfer record when they paid Rangers half a million pounds for midfielder Charlie Adam. They started the current season very strongly, and nearing the end of September they were in fifth place with 16 points from nine games. After 21 games they are still in seventh place on 31 points - only eight behind Albion - despite having won only four of their last twelve, and only one of their last five.
Until recently they were still unbeaten at home. But in their last home game, against Barnsley on 5th December, they lost 2-1 after leading 1-0 with only five minutes to go.
Head to HeadAlbion's first League game against Blackpool - at Bloomfield Road in October 1901 - ended in a 2-2 draw. We'd just been relegated for the first time, and it was their fifth season in the League. In the return at The Hawthorns in February 1902, Albion won 7-2 - 'Chippy' Simmons scoring a hat-trick.
Albion were promoted in 1902 after only one season, but we were relegated again in 1904. Over the next five years we beat Blackpool eight times - all five home games, and three away. In November 1908 we were leading 2-0 at Bloomfield Road when Charlie Hewitt had a goal disallowed as the referee said it hadn't crossed the line. Reports suggested that the ball had in fact rebounded from the stanchion that held the goal net up. This disallowed goal was to cost Albion promotion, as we missed out by the narrowest of margins to Tottenham Hotspur (who were in their first League season) on goal average.
(For the record: Spurs had scored 67 and conceded 32 - goal average 2.09; Albion had scored 56 and conceded 27 - goal average 2.07. With the extra goal, our average would have been 2.11.)
It took Albion two more years to win that promotion. In those two years, we beat Blackpool only once, losing the other three.
Albion were back in the Second Division in 1927, and over the next three years our results against Blackpool were mixed - we won three, drew one and lost two. In the first of those six matches, in September 1927, Jimmy Cookson scored all six goals (one of them a penalty) as Albion beat Blackpool 6-3. Needless to say (well, almost), this is the only time an Albion player has scored six goals in a single game.
It was in 1930 that the Seasiders were promoted to the First Division for the first time, and Albion followed them up a year later. We won our first four top flight games against Blackpool; they were relegated in 1933, but they were back four years later and they did the double over us for the second time.
Albion were relegated again in 1938, but we were back in 1949 at the start of what was a golden era for both clubs. For a while things went Blackpool's way: they won seven consecutive games at Bloomfield Road, and two at The Hawthorns. In March 1956 they won 5-1 at Bloomfield Road - their biggest ever victory over Albion. But from 1956 onwards things started to go Albion's way, with eleven wins (including four at Bloomfield Road) and only seven defeats. In April 1962 Derek Kevan scored four as we recorded our biggest ever win against Blackpool: 7-1.
During our three years in the Second Division in the 1970s we beat Blackpool three times - including twice at Bloomfield Road - and lost only once. Particularly memorable was the game in November 1975, when Willie Johnston (as he described it in On the Wing) "let one rip from all of 25 yards" to score the only goal of the game - and it won ATV's Goal of the Season award.
It was only two years later that Blackpool were relegated to the Third Division for the first time, and in 1991, when Albion suffered the same fate, they were in the Fourth. But they won promotion in 1992, so in 1992-3 we played them for the first time in 17 years. They were our opponents, at The Hawthorns, on the opening day of that season; Albion won 3-1, Bob Taylor scoring twice and Bernard McNally getting a third. Simon Garner, Ian Hamilton and Steve Lilwall made their Albion debuts in this game; Blackpool's side included 19-year-old Trevor Sinclair, who signed for QPR the following summer and went on to win twelve England caps.
Blackpool won the return at Bloomfield Road, in February 1993, 2-1. Albion's goal came once again from Bob Taylor.
Albion thankfully returned to the second flight at the end of that season, but Blackpool stayed in the third until 2007 (except for one season in the fourth - 2000-1). Two years ago, after they won promotion back to the second flight for the first time in 29 years (as already mentioned), Albion won both games: 2-1 at The Hawthorns and 3-1 at Bloomfield Road.
We've played Blackpool five times in the FA Cup - all between 1956 and 1978. Remarkably, four of those five meetings were between 1956/7 and 1963/4. Albion have won four and lost one; the one defeat came in the fifth round in 1958-9, when we lost 3-1 at Bloomfield Road. On the last occasion, in 1977-8, we won 4-1 at The Hawthorns in the third round (Johnston 2, Regis, Tony Brown pen) before going on to lose to Ipswich in the semi-final.
We also, as previously mentioned, played Blackpool's predecessors South Shore in 1898-9, winning 8-0. Billy Bassett scored a hat trick in this game. This remains our biggest ever home victory in the FA Cup, although it was equalled in 1993 when we beat Aylesbury United by the same score (Kevin Donovan's finest hour).
Our biggest FA Cup victory anywhere, in case you were wondering, was 10-1 away to Chatham in 1888-9.
We've never yet played Blackpool in the League Cup.