Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Holloway wants revenge against Manchester City

Phil Medlicott,Pa
Friday 31 December 2010 14:25 GMT
Comments

Blackpool boss Ian Holloway is looking for revenge when his side take on Manchester City at Eastlands tomorrow.

Holloway was incensed at the way the Seasiders lost to City at Bloomfield Road in October, claiming that three crucial wrong decisions had swung the game.

The 47-year-old was aggrieved that Gary Taylor-Fletcher had an effort disallowed when it was still 0-0, thought Carlos Tevez had been offside when opening the scoring and also felt that a foul had been committed against Ian Evatt in the build-up to the Argentinian's second goal, which put City 2-1 ahead.

Roberto Mancini's team eventually triumphed 3-2 and Holloway believes he has a score to settle.

"I want some revenge if we can possibly be good enough to get it," Holloway said.

"I think Man City have improved massively in the period since they played us and that they are going from strength to strength, but we are going to go to their ground and I want to see if we can beat them this time.

"I won't be going there to shut up shop or say 'goodness me, they are fantastic'.

"We are going to try to attack them, so hopefully it will be a good game."

City moved up to second in the table with the result in October and are back there at the moment, with their push for the title seemingly only set to get stronger as they prepare to flex their considerable financial muscle in the January transfer window.

Blackpool, currently eighth, have had a successful time of it themselves in their maiden Barclays Premier League campaign and Holloway is adamant he would not swap positions with Mancini.

Asked if he ever looked at clubs like City and wondered what he might do with the sort of money they have, Holloway said: "No, not at all - I wouldn't want it.

"It's quite obscene at times, isn't it? Trying to keep all of (the players) happy? I wouldn't want it.

"I'd rather do what we're doing. It would be nice to have that sort of wage budget to a point, but it causes all sorts of hassle.

"I'd rather be where we are and I am delighted with it. I wouldn't want the pressure that (Mancini) has got."

One of City's expensive acquisitions who has been in the spotlight recently is striker Mario Balotelli, who notched a hat-trick on Tuesday against Aston Villa to take his tally for the season to eight.

The Italian, bought from Inter Milan in the summer, has rarely celebrated when scoring those goals and Holloway knows it will not necessarily be enough for his side to keep the 20-year-old from smiling on New Year's Day.

"I don't know the kid and I can't really comment on other people's players," Holloway said.

"I hope he is not smiling against us, but that doesn't mean he might not have got a hat-trick! I hope he doesn't score against us is what I should say."

Holloway admits he does not want 2010 - in which the Seasiders have defied expectation by winning promotion and taking 25 points from 17 top-flight fixtures - to come to an end, and thinks the team have a "season-defining" period ahead of them, with seven games currently scheduled for January.

Postponements due to the freezing weather meant Blackpool only played twice in December and Holloway has voiced his support for the introduction of an official winter break.

"The goodwill around here has been great and I feel for the people of the area," Holloway said.

"Saturday games are what we need - then people might come up on the Friday, stay over on Saturday, might even stay until Sunday and we get all that extra business.

"Unfortunately (rearranged) night games aren't the same because people have to go to work the following day.

"So really, I'd like to extend the season. Maybe we should have a winter break if we get winters like this in future.

"It would be nice to let the people of the area benefit fully from this."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in