Next up it’s a Blackpool side that have settled into life back in the Championship with few alarms, they may not have many star names, but they’ve fared pretty well when visiting the grounds of much better teams than us (e.g. draws at Fulham and Bournemouth and wins at Middlesbrough and Sheffield United) – it won’t be easy for us to extend our home winning run to four.
Here’s questions on Blackpool from every decade going back to the sixties.
60s. This one time underground surveyor was something of a trail blazer during this decade as he led a team that had been reduced to getting the begging bowl out for three consecutive seasons to an amazing campaign which saw them score one hundred and forty one goals in all while he was player/manager – they were on their way to promotion a year later as well until a New Year’s Day trip to Aldershot which saw both of their full backs suffer broken legs brought on a slump. Before that, he’d had a couple of years at Blackpool early in this decade where he’d been a regular in their First Division team, but he then moved into non league football at a town more famous for another sport (their showpiece event is less than a month away), before the call came to return to the full time game at the club he eventually managed at the age of twenty nine, can you name him?
70s. Born in a steel town, this forward joined his local, striped, team and maintained a thoroughly acceptable scoring rate for them over three years without quite establishing himself as a regular pick and he eventually left to join Blackpool in a part exchange deal. Once again, his scoring rate was pretty good, but he only played ninety odd league games during his five years there (Blackpool were a bogey team of City’s then and so, like his team mates, he tended to enjoy his games against us), although the knee injury which forced his eventual retirement from the full time game had a lot to do with that. This didn’t stop him signing for some Dollies from a county town (now a city) which seems some way off ever having a Football League club – he later managed this team for three years, who is he?
80s. Blackpool forward from this decade or maybe mad racing from Germany? (5,6)
90s. Office worker from up north by the sound of it!
00s. This defender, born on Christmas Day and the holder of fifteen international caps, was never in a winning Blackpool side against us during his three years with them at the end of this decade and into the next one, but, although more unlikely now, it’s still not beyond the bounds of possibility that we could come up against him next season – there may well be bigger clubs who will try to prise him away before then though, who?
10s. Quietly spoken presenter at full back?
20s. West Indian glove man meets England regular?
Answers:
60s. Born in Kimberley, South Africa, Peter Hauser became one of the first foreign managers in British football when he took over at Chester (they had finished in the bottom four of the Fourth Division and had to apply for re-election, a process whereby they were reliant on the votes of the other Football League to avoid being relegated). Before that, Hauser had played eighty three times for Blackpool in the First Division, scoring ten times between 1962 and 1963 before a move to Cheltenham Town.
70s. Keith Dyson was born in Consett and signed on as an apprentice for nearby Newcastle United. Making his debut at eighteen, Dyson scored twenty two First Division goals in seventy six games for the Geordies between 1968 and 1971 before he was a part of the deal with Blackpool which took Tony Green to Newcastle. Two of Dyson’s thirty league goals for Blackpool came at Ninian Park in Blackpool wins, but he failed to reach a hundred games for them because of the knee injury which forced him to “retire” in 1976. However, he kept on playing at non League level with Lancaster, who he also managed between 1979 and 1982.
80s. Craig Madden.
90s. Clarke Carlisle.
00s. Welsh international centreback Rob Edwards was at Blackpool between 2008 and 2011 and had two draws and a defeat to show from his three encounters with City in that time. He’s now in charge at Forest Green Rovers who look certainties to win League Two this season.
10s. Bob Harris played a few games at full back for Blackpool early in this decade – his name sake “whispering” Bob Harris was the presenter of the long running music show The Old Grey Whistle Test for much of its seventeen year existence.
20s. Dujon Sterling is currently at Blackpool on a year long loan from Chelsea.