Ten-year anniversary of Blackpool's promotion to the Premier League: Jimmy Armfield pays special training ground visit as Seasiders prepare for clash with play-off rivals

Ian Holloway and his Blackpool squad received a special training ground visit from Jimmy Armfield

Blackpool hero Keith Southern fears big clubs are under threat

Over the coming weeks, The Gazette's football writer Matt Scrafton will be dipping into the archives to bring you our reports from a decade ago on Blackpool’s remarkable journey to the promised land.

On this day 10 years ago, Ian Holloway and his Blackpool squad received a special visit from a club legend...

Ben Burgess was hoping to prove he was worthy of a new contract

A training ground visit from Jimmy Armfield gave Ian Holloway a boost as he prepares to get one over on promotion rivals Swansea.

Fresh from his special day opening the new South Stand at the weekend, Armfield dropped into Squires Gate for a chat with the manager.

It was much appreciated by Holloway, who also talked at length to the former England and Seasiders legend after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace.

“Jimmy spoke to me after the game and he was as emotional as I was,” said Holloway.

“He came in yesterday to tell me what a fantastic second half it was. We could have won by five he said, but unfortunately their keeper was a bit tasty.

“It was good of him to go out of his way to do that and he’s right, the second half was good.

“I think the problem in the first period was that with the stand opening and Jimmy being there, things like that can sometimes cloud your focus.

“You don’t normally have an excellent old footballer walking along shaking your hand and it looked like we thought we were at Wembley rather than Bloomfield Road.

“But I reminded them what their jobs were at half time and luckily we had a great response and that’s what I’m focusing on now, how good that comeback was.”

Failure to win has lengthened the gap between Pool and sixth-placed Cardiff City to seven points, and the Bluebirds have a game in hand.

Suggest to Holloway, though, that a play-off place is unlikely and the pressure is now off and he couldn’t disagree more.

“We have to reapply the pressure. It should always be about yourself and you should never look around,” he said.

“The last thing you do at the end of a race is to check on where everyone else is because you won’t win. It is very difficult not to do because of where we got ourselves.

“But we’ve got to learn to deal with that if we are going to be the club that I think we can be, instead of a club who thinks it is really doing well because it isn’t near the relegation zone.

“That’s a whole mindset that has got to change, from the fans to the players to the board.

“I know where I think we can get to and you have to keep working towards getting there.

“At the end of the day it comes down to the quality of what you produce on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes each week.

“You can’t waste any minutes of that. But we have recently, against Sheffield United and the first half against Crystal Palace.

“I won’t go mad about it because I understand it is difficult.

“It is a long hard race and you might stop, put your hands on your knees and take a long deep breath at the wrong time.

“But we need to get it back because I don’t want our season which has been fantastic to be ruined right at the end.”

Holloway added: “Cardiff now have a fair few points more than us. But we’ve got 24 to fight and scrap for and if we can win seven out of nine we might even be in the playoffs.

“We want to finish off strongly, see what we can do and nothing that happens can stop my belief in where I think we are going to go.”

Ben Burgess is likely to lead the line for the Seasiders against Swansea after his goalscoring appearance from the bench at the weekend.

Burgess, speaking to The Gazette ahead of the Swansea clash, admitted he’s having to prove he’s worthy of a new contract.

The striker’s contract runs out in the summer and he is unsure whether he’ll be offered new terms.

“I’d love to stay at Blackpool,” the 28-year-old said.

“But I haven’t played that many games lately and it is up to the gaffer what he wants to do.

“There are eight games left this season and so I’ve got eight games to get a contract. It’s as simple as that and I just have to do the best I can.

“I’ve not started many games since Christmas and I’ve got to put that right by trying to play well and score goals when I do play.

“But I’d love to stay because I’ve had a great time here so hopefully the goal on Saturday can be the start of a good run.”