Steve Canavan: Tangerine fireworks have lit up a negative top flight
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Your support makes all the difference.The colour tangerine is not to everyone's taste but Ian Holloway's side have lit up the top flight this season. The manner in which they have taken games by the scruff of the neck and, win or lose, tried to attack and score goals has been a blessed relief, given some of the negative tactics we have witnessed in previous years.
Holloway's press conferences are almost as entertaining as what his team produces on the pitch. So what if he occasionally gets under the skin of the humourless suits at Premier League HQ? The bottom line is that his side improves their product and ultimately makes it more saleable around the world. Surely the powers that be can put up with a few Ollie rants if in return they get exciting football?
Blackpool sum up everything good about the game. Nearly all their players have plied their trade in the lower leagues at one time or another. They don't get off team coaches wearing huge oversized headphones and ignore requests for autographs. They still need to work for a living and therefore bust a gut to play well.
No wonder they seem to be everyone's second favourite club. In an era when success is usually dependent on status and wealth, Blackpool are a throwback to more innocent times, both on and off the pitch. If they book a second season at the top, the Premier League should be the first to congratulate them – they have done the league a favour.
Steve Canavan is chief football writer of the 'Blackpool Evening Gazette'
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