Bloomfield Road

The second set of pics from my visit to Blighty includes images from Bloomfield Road last Saturday afternoon. Dad treated me to a grandstand view of Blackpool's home match versus Plymouth in The Championship (i.e. the old second division). It our first visit back to watch the Seasiders since circa 1990 when they lost to a last-minute Luther Blissett winner against Brentford in what was one of the most mind-numbing, soul-destroying 90 minutes of long-ball football I have ever witnessed. I distinctly remember remarking back then to my Dad that it would be the last time I would go and watch the Tangerines. Times change, however. After finally gaining promotion last season to the second tier of English football, I thought the quality of the football might have improved somewhat. Perhaps not to the level of the Blackpool sides featuring Alan Ball, Jimmy Armfield, Alan Suddick that my Dad used to watch from the old "Scratching Shed", i.e. from the stand on the touchline opposite to the dugouts that had the "famous" Ismail Tea advertising on its roof - as synonymous with Bloomfield Road as the old Wonderfuel Gas logo used to be with the Stretford End at Old Trafford in the 1980s.

The same side of the ground now has a temporary stand without a roof where the away fans have their allocation, while the south stand is no more. All there is behind the goal at that end is a car park. The other two sides are, however, proper stands. Plans are afoot to extend these to at least cover the southern end. If Blackpool FC can one day fill in the gaps around the pitch, Bloomfield Road could maybe house crowds of nearly 20,000. For the record, the attendance at last Saturday's match was nearly 9,000.

Below are also some family photos.