Blackpool SLO column: Can there be another perfect finish?

It was the 2006-7 season, our 100th in the Football League as it happened.

We were in League One at the time, just as we are now, with Simon Grayson in charge.

Our campaign had begun badly enough with only two wins in our first dozen games and Barnsley dumped us out of the League Cup at home as well.

Things then picked up as Fox, Hoolahan, Morrell and Parker found their shooting boots.

We were never going to clinch automatic promotion – come on, this is Blackpool – but, from the end of March, we went on a bit of a run.

We won our final seven league games, including that 6-3 victory on the last day of the season at Swansea City, and we were into the play-offs – again.

Doing the double over Oldham Athletic in the play-off semis and then beating Yeovil Town at Wembley in front of more than 30,000 delirious Seasiders made it a perfect 10 wins in a row.

It completed a remarkable sequence and secured our return to the second tier after 30 years in the lower divisions.

Here we are again, at the end of March, with seven league games to go and Blackpool still in touching distance of the play-offs.

There’s time for the team in tangerine to get on the front foot and go on another winning run, starting at Derby County this afternoon and then Wycombe Wanderers at home on Easter Monday.

Maybe it will happen, perhaps it won’t even take seven straight wins.

I will always have hope until the mathematics of it says otherwise. Isn’t that what being a fan is all about, so come on you Seasiders.

You might have registered that the Football Governance Bill was introduced into Parliament earlier this month.

As somebody who was in at the beginning of this long campaign, I was pleased that we’ve finally got to this point.

It was gratifying to read Blackpool’s CEO stating: “This is something the club has been in support of since the initial idea came to public view and as such we welcome the introduction of the bill to Parliament.”

It’s a significant step forward. However, more detail has to be forthcoming about the content and its implications for clubs.

There is still a long way to go to make an independent football regulator a reality and to enshrine the intentions of the Bill into law to ensure: better governance across the leagues, including financial stability and sustainability through the whole pyramid; a fairer distribution of the massive wealth being poured into the game; the championing of football clubs as true community assets; and a greater voice for fans in the running of their clubs.

Finally, let me remind you that if any fan wishes to contact me for any reason at all, my email is [email protected] and my mobile number is on the club website. You might also like to follow @bfcslo on Facebook and X.

UTMP!