Friday’s

The two sides cannot be split in terms of the outright betting for promotion with both on offer at 11/4 to make it back to the big time, although West Ham, who were the other side relegated last season, are the favourites at 13/8 with Cardiff the outsiders at 4/1.

Birmingham beat champions Reading 2-0 on the final day of the Championship season to climb above Blackpool, who were held 2-2 at Millwall, and seal the advantage of playing the second leg at St Andrew’s next Wednesday.

Both sides go into Friday’s clash in decent form with Blackpool enjoying a seven-match unbeaten streak, since a 3-1 loss at Reading, while the Blues have now gone nine matches without defeat following a surprising 4-1 reverse at Portsmouth.

Ian Holloway had suggested that not many, including himself, would have expected the Tangerines to make the play-offs this year but they have been installed as the 11/8 favourites in the match betting for the first-leg clash, with the Blues priced at 21/10 and the draw on offer at 9/4.

It is perhaps no surprise given the fact that Blackpool have made Bloomfield Road something of a fortress this season, suffering just three defeats and none since a 4-1 hammering against the Hammers in February.

Chris Hughton has done wonders with the cash-strapped Blues, who had a Europa League campaign to contend with following their Carling Cup success, and they should be full of confidence going into the first-leg clash.

Their away form has been patchy though this season with seven wins, seven draws and nine defeats on the road – the worst record of the top six clubs – although there is good news in the sense that Blackpool’s away record is only one draw better.

The game promises to be a cracker with City boasting the highest number of away goals scored in the division, while the Tangerines’ home tally is second only to Southampton so Over 2.5 Goals at 5/6 looks the way to go.

Backing that up is the fact that the two played out a 2-2 draw in the regular season fixture last November, with Birmingham going on to win at St Andrew’s in comfortable fashion, 3-0.

Hughton’s men have struggled defensively on the road as they have conceded a huge 37 goals, with only five teams with a worse record, and they have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last 11 games.

As it is a two-legged affair, more good news for Birmingham is the fact that Blackpool are one of the teams that have conceded more.

Blackpool will be desperate to get the lead going into the return leg but Birmingham should have enough nous and organisation to at least take something from the game ahead of the return leg.

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The former QPR boss has made a fantastic start to life in the Premier League, when all the critics believed that Tangerines would be torn apart in every game this season.

That certainly has not been the case and Blackpool (2/5 to stay up) currently sit in tenth in the Premier League, after defying all odds last season with promotion from the Championship.

Holloway is renowned for his quirky interviews and the passion he clearly has for football is infectious and has been a breath of fresh air in the Premier League.

However, it’s the team’s attacking style of play that has endeared them to so many football fans.

The attitude that we don’t care if we are playing Manchester United at Old Trafford or Liverpool at Anfield, we are going to have a go and try to get all three points from every game has been excellent.

Holloway has had such a limited budget to work with at Bloomfield Road, but he has been able to give the players he has got the belief to fear nobody.

So far this tactic has worked this season and it would not be surprising if we were all talking about Holloway and Blackpool in their second season in the Premier League next year.

Another manager who has been able to get the most out of his limited resources is Roberto Di Matteo.

Despite being relatively new to the managing side of the game, compared to the veterans like Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Roy Hodgson, he has already developed a strong management style that appears to be working down at the Hawthorns.

West Brom (7/1 to be relegated) are 11th in the Premier League and have recorded some impressive wins -  including an outstanding 3-2 victory over Arsenal at the Emirates.

The writing appeared to be on the wall for the Baggies when they were hammered 6-0 against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on the opening game of the season.

However, Di Matteo has managed to get results in the top flight whilst continuing the attractive football that, in the past, cost them a place in the Premier League.

The Italian has added a bit of steal to their style of play and with the signing of Peter Odemwingie, West Brom have given many teams a run for their money this season and they should avoid relegation next year.

A manager who has been able to convert a side from a team renowned for playing long ball football to a team who get the ball in the deck and create plenty of chances, is Owen Coyle at Bolton Wanderers.

Since arriving at the Reebok Stadium from local rivals Burnley, Coyle has changed the philosophy at the club.

This was not something that has happened overnight, but it is clear to see that the standard of football the Whites (11/2 to finish in the top six) are playing has improved greatly.

Coyle has managed to get the best out of the likes of Johan Elmander and Stuart Holden, who have helped the Trotters reach seventh place and keep alive their European hopes.

Bolton really have the potential to challenge for a top six finish this season, largely due a very good and highly-rated manager at the helm.

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Ian Holloway

Arguably the richest side in the world will travel to Blackpool on Sunday to take on a side who broke their transfer record in the summer with the signing of DJ Campbell for £1.25million.

Campbell’s transfer fee pales into insignificance when compared to the amounts City have spent over the past two years, breaking the British transfer record when they signed Robinho for £32million.

The likes of Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor and James Milner have all cost over £20million, loose change to the Abu Dhabi United Group which currently owns City.

The financial gap between City and Blackpool might be massive but in the Premier League the sides are separated by just four points.

Holloway’s men have been the surprise package this season, beating Liverpool at Anfield last time out as they moved up to ninth in the division.

Sunday’s game against City will represent another chance for Blackpool to claim the scalp of one of England’s biggest teams.

City (15/2 Premier League Outright) made a sluggish start to the season but have recently found some form, moving up to second in the league with a 2-1 win over Newcastle.

Despite Blackpool’s recent performances victory for Roberto Mancini’s side will be seen as a formality as they look to keep up the pressure on current leaders Chelsea.

However, Holloway has other plans and believes money won’t necessarily buy City victory against his plucky outfit.

“To outsiders, this will be the biggest mismatch in the history of football because of our financial situations,” said Holloway.

“But let’s see what we can do. If it was all about how much you’re on, we’d be bottom of the league by a zillion miles.

“Before Liverpool, I was reminding my lads we were a point above them, and this is a league game – we’re in the same division as them on merit.

“And I’ll be doing the same thing with Manchester City.”

Holloway will have to hope he can work his magic from the stands as he serves a one-match touchline ban for his abuse of the officials during Blackburn’s win at Bloomfield Road.

Blackpool (5/4 to stay up) fans will be hoping Holloway is the only regular face missing on Sunday as they wait to hear whether Craig Cathcart and Neal Eardley have recovered from the problems which forced them off against Liverpool.

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The Blues have looked in awesome form in the early part of the season and are the only top-flight team to have secured maximum points from their opening four matches.

The Stamford Bridge outfit began the defence of their title with back-to-back 6-0 victories over West Brom and Wigan before a 2-0 success over Stoke and a 3-1 win against West Ham United, conceding their first Premiership goal of the season at Upton Park.

They are many pundits’ favourites to win the Premier League again this term while an assault on the Champions League is also high on the agenda for Carlo Ancelotti.

Holloway will take his men to west London after an excellent and somewhat surprising start to their life in the Premiership.

The north west side currently sit in fourth place in the league after beginning the season with an amazing 4-0 victory over Wigan.

Disappointment followed with a 6-0 thumping at Arsenal but they bounced back to draw with Fulham and took all three points from Newcastle last time out.

Holloway is realistic about his side’s chances against Chelsea this weekend but is determined to try and play some attacking football and not just sit back for 90 minutes in an attempt to come away with a point.

“Obviously you have got to show respect and their home record is pretty awesome,” he said. “But if you step into the ring with a champion, which is what we are going to do, somewhere you have to throw a punch. You should never be afraid to attack.

“I watched Glasgow Rangers with great interest against Manchester United and with their 5-4-1 formation, they did really well – defensively, they were fantastic. But I still think you need to throw the odd punch.”

The Seasiders boss knows his main aim this season is to keep Blackpool in the Premiership and he wants to make sure that his players are not too afraid to express themselves when they take on the best that English football has to offer.

“I want them to enjoy the game – away at Chelsea, Stamford Bridge, the champions who are unbeaten for who knows how many matches at home,” he added. “It is a fantastic club we’re taking on. I’m respectful of everyone, but fearful of no-one.”

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Blackpool

The north-west club make their triumphant return to the top flight of English football on Saturday when they travel to the DW Stadium for their season opener, 39 years after their last game in the top tier.

However, it has been a difficult build-up for Blackpool ever since they secured promotion with a 3-2 victory over Cardiff in the Championship play-off in May.

Holloway’s side have been reduced to the bare bones over the summer as they failed to sign many of the loan stars than made them a success last season.

The Seasiders had been desperate to recruit DJ Campbell from Leicester after his loan spell last season but had a number of bids rejected by the Foxes as they held out for more money.

The problems with signing Campbell have been repeated with a number of players and while Holloway has finally been able to bring in five new recruits it looks as though Blackpool could struggle to fill their 25-man squad allocation for the Premier League season.

Blackpool’s failure to sign as many players as Holloway would have liked is believed to have left the former QPR, Plymouth and Leicester manager frustrated and on the verge of quitting the club.

However, Holloway moved to lay those rumours to rest on Wednesday, stating that stories claiming he had quit the Seasiders (2/7 to be relegated) had been greatly over exaggerated.

The 47-year-old has now given Blackpool fans a boost by announcing that he plans to extend his stay at Bloomfield Road after agreeing a new two-year contract.

Holloway is confident he will remain at the club no matter what happens this season but believes his side has what it takes to stay in the Premier League this season.

The Pool boss said: “No-one is bulletproof but I’m confident the chairman won’t sack me next year.

“And I’m confident that if we have gone down, I will be here the following season to actually build a team.

“But I’m confident we can stay in this division.

“If my lads relish the way we are going to play and how we do things, and if the new lads can settle quickly, we can do it.”

Blackpool (16/1 to win the league in the handicap betting) fans might feel a little bit more confident about the upcoming season after Holloway’s announcement, with the recruitment of five players going some way to stabilising the club.

The Seasiders announced the signings of Ludovic Sylvestre, Craig Cathcart, Marlon Harewood, Elliot Grandin and Malaury Martin on Wednesday, with more expected before the transfer window shuts at the end of August.

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The Seasiders have been a steady source of rumour and counter-rumour since winning promotion to the Premier League via the Championship play-offs at the end of last season.

Holloway’s contract status and the players’ promotion bonuses have hit the headlines – and now the former QPR, Plymouth and Leicester boss has been forced to come out and deny claims of a rift leading to his departure.

The 47-year-old was away from the club at the start of the week but he has wasted no time in shooting down talk of a dramatic Martin O’Neill-style departure on the eve of the Seasiders’ Premier League bow.

He told reporters: “Before anyone asks a question, I just want to make sure you can see me – you can see me here and I’m not a cardboard cut-out, because somehow or other, I’m not supposed to be here.

“It’s just a crazy world that we have moved into. Apparently yesterday I’d walked out and resigned. I had to be in London the day before and didn’t want to drive back at six o’clock in the morning to get here because I was too tired.

“I had to be at a Premier League meeting, and what that has caused – by not coming back up for training. We only had eight players, some were on international duty and I wasn’t going to train them that hard anyway.

“Look at how things go crazy. But welcome, and by the way, we’ve just signed some new players as well. I just want to get that straight.”

The players Holloway have snapped up are Manchester United defender Craig Cathcart, Ludovic Sylvestre from Czech side Mlada Boleslav, Malaury Martin from Monaco and Elliot Grandin from Bulgarian outfit CSKA Sofia.

Blackpool kick off their Premier League season at Wigan on Saturday although they are widely expected to last no longer than one season with the big boys (Wigan v Blackpool 15/2 – Opening Day Game With Most Goals).

The Seasiders are odds on (11/10) to finish bottom of the table.

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Blackpool

Following last season’s play-off success, the Tangerines boss has spent all summer trying to add new faces to his squad.

But without a massive transfer kitty and with one eye on the future, Blackpool have found it hard to sign new players as they prepare for their first Premier League campaign.

So far, the Premier League new-boys have not be able to make any signings, with just five weeks to go until the start of the new campaign.

Holloway admits that Blackpool did not plan to go up last season and that is another reason why they have struggled to make an impact in the summer transfer window.

The former QPR boss told the Blackpool Gazette: “I have to try to get myself six to nine extra players because I’ve only got 16 at the moment and we need a squad of 25.

“We might not get to 25 and I hope we don’t have any injuries or suspensions before January because that could kill us.”

Holloway has conceded that Blackpool only have one scout, which has made it difficult for the Tangerines to check out players in Europe and further afield.

The manager has already indicated that he will look to bring in younger players and try and build for the future, with big-money signings out of the question.

Holloway added: “We’ve never watched a player who is worth a million quid. So how on earth can we now try and get a player – in fact nine of them – to keep us in the Premier League?

“That’s the reality of it. Until you get to the top flight you haven’t got the money to put these structures in place. So it’s a vicious circle.”

Blackpool kick-off the new season with a home clash against Lancashire rivals Wigan (9/1 to win 2-0 at Bloomfield Road) on Saturday August 14, before an away trip to Arsenal on August 21.

Holloway is keen to keep the team spirit at the same level as last season and that means looking to bring in a certain type of player.

The manager concluded: “What I want to do is get the characters right because I don’t want to lose what we’ve got here, I think it’s really special.

“They’ll have to come for the right reason, which isn’t their wage packet – it’ll be wanting to play in the Premiership for Blackpool.”

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Holloway has warned fans not to expect the club to bring in a hatful of new players as the Seasiders will adopt a conservative approach to try and stay in the top flight next term.

The 47-year old has learned lessons from other Championship clubs who reached the Premier League and went for the ‘boom or bust’ approach to stay in the division.

He said: “People think we’ve got £90million hanging out of our back pocket that all the wages and transfer fees we used to pay before, they think we can suddenly join the big boys, which would be suicidal if we did and we’re not going to do that.

“You’ve only got to look at Hull and the problems they’ve now got. All of a sudden the wheels come off – we can’t afford to do that for our club so we’ve got to be really careful what we do. It’s learning new things and we’ve got to learn very quickly,” he added.

Blackpool will be looking to follow the success of teams like Stoke City who, as well as retaining Premier League status for two straight seasons, have managed to be one of the few clubs in the division to run at a profit.

The fixtures for next season were released on Thursday and after the Pools home match with Latics, they face tough games against Arsenal (6/1 to win the Premier League)  Fulham and fellow promoted side Newcastle United.

Holloway has said the players already at Bloomfield Road will have their chance to play against the Premier League’s best teams as they managed to get the Tangerines up from the Championship thanks to a 3-2 playoff win against Cardiff City.

However, the manager has reiterated that his team will have to raise their game if they expect any chance of avoiding relegation.

He said: “My players will have to get used to getting beat a few times. It’s fantastic, isn’t it? Has it really sunk in with anyone (yet)? Blackpool are in a league fixture against some of these teams.

“We’ve got a complete culture shock. We’ve got a complete change in everything we ever thought about as a football club. The most exciting thing for all of us is that it’s such a challenge.”

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Holloway has been linked to the Hammers job following an excellent season at Bloomfield Road in which he has guided the club to within 90 minutes of the Premier League (Blackpool 6/5 Promotion) following a top-six Championship finish and play-off semi-final win against Nottingham Forest.

However, ahead of Saturday’s Wembley showdown against Cardiff City, (Blackpool 21/10,Cardiff 13/10, draw 9/4 90 Minutes) Holloway has pledged his long-term future to the Seasiders.

He said: “It’s an honour to be linked with something like that but it’s not genuine is it? If it was genuine then my chairman (Karl Oyston) would be talking to me about it. I think a lot of journalists are quite lazy. They look at things and think ‘oh, we can throw that name in’.

“At the end of the day it’s the people at the top of the clubs who make these decisions. You read the stories but these newspapers will be wrapping someone’s chips tomorrow. Never believe what you read in the papers. I don’t.

“I’m doing a job as well as I possibly can and I’m more than happy to keep doing it.”

Holloway’s outburst comes on the back of Blackburn’s denial that West Ham have made an approach to take Sam Allardyce (16/1) to Upton Park, while Portsmouth have paved the way clear for Avram Grant (1/10) to leave Fratton Park and take the job by saying they will not demand any compensation.

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Blackpool

Holloway’s men hold a slender 2-1 advantage following Saturday’s first-leg at Bloomfield Road but know they will face a sterner examination when travel to the City Ground.

A draw will be enough to take the Seasiders through to Wembley and punters who fancy them to hold Forest can take a price of 5/2, while the win is 4/1.

Blackpool can take heart from the fact they have already beaten Forest on their home turf this season when a goal from leading scorer Charlie Adam earned them a 1-0 win and Holloway is hoping for much of the same.

“Forest know they are brilliant at home. They just know that. You only have to look at their record this season,” Holloway revealed.

“But we’ve got nothing to fear and we’ve got to go there and try to play. A little fillip for us is that we did manage to go there and win 1-0 earlier in the season. Whether it was luck or not, we did it.

“If we can get lucky in this next one then I’ll take it. But we can’t rely on that.”

Adam is 8/1 to bag the first goal, while punters who are predicting a repeat of events at the City Ground back in September can take a price of 50/1.

Forest are usually outstanding at home and are odds on at 8/11 to pick up the victory. They need to win 2-0 (6/1) to prevent it going to extra-time as away goals do not come into play, so it is sure to be an open game.

The last three fixtures between the two sides have also been high scoring affairs with three or more goals scored and punters can take odds of 11/10 on another goal fest.

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