Owls need home comforts

The Owls entertain Blackpool on Tuesday evening with both sides looking to get back to winning ways after being on the wrong side of refereeing decisions regarding penalties at the weekend, the Owls were incensed by Mr Kettle’s penalty award when the ball hit Darren purse on the shoulder whilst Blackpool saw Mr Haines deny Charlie Adam a stonewaller in the dying minutes of the game with Leicester. 

Owls News

Wednesday boss Alan Irvine will be hoping for more of the same from his players on Tuesday, the Scot saw his team dominate the second half at Forest on Saturday but came away empty handed after conceding a sloppy second goal just ten minutes from time.

The Owls will once again be without Jermaine Johnson, Francis Jeffers, Tommy Miller and Lewis Buxton all of whom are injured so Irvine may have to rely on academy products to fill the bench for the task of beating of beating Blackpool.

Etienne Esajas could be offered his first start in two months after impressing from the bench on Saturday, the likeable Dutchman could replace Michael Gray who appeared to be flagging in recent games, the 35 year old has been an ever present under Alan Irvine so far.

Darren Potter will be looking to continue with his ever improving displays, the Scouser ran the show in the second half at Forest and was looking for the ball constantly, he is a real handful when he’s in that mood it’s a shame we haven’t seen more of it this season.

Luke Varney will be hoping to make it 4 in 3, the pacy striker has netted in his last two games and is second top scorer at the club with 7 goals, he can level with strike partner Tudgay if he nets tomorrow, the front two seem to forging a partnership and were impressive away at Notts Forest.

Team News

Team (possible): Grant, Simek, Purse, Beevers, Spurr; Soares, Potter, O’Connor, Esajas; Tudgay, Varney.

(subs from) Jameson, Hinds, Boden, Clarke, McAllister, Lekaj, Gray, Oliver, Palmer.

Blackpool FC News

The Tangerines head to S6 on the back of a defeat to play-off rivals Leicester at the weekend which saw the Foxes leap frog Pool and settle into the top six, Pool dropped a place to 8th but will be more unhappy about the booking that rules key man Charlie Adam out for two games.

Blackpool FC

Blackpool, a seaside town in North West England, a place famous for its Tower which dominates the coastal landscape but the Football club is steeped in history with two of the greatest players this country has produced playing for the Tangerines, Stan Mortensen and Stanley Matthews, Mortensen was a Blackpool legend, he began his career with the club and spent 14 years with the club playing over 300 times for the club and netting nearly a century of goals, he was an England regular and helped the club win the FA cup in 1953 in the “Matthews” final when he scored the only hat-trick in an FA Cup final at Wembley.

Matthews himself joined the club at the age of 32 from hometown club Stoke City, the Wizard of Dribble as he was known went on to play over 400 games for the Tangerines in a spell taking him up past his 46th birthday and netting 19 times, he only won one major trophy in his career, that was the 1953 FA Cup he won with Blackpool.

Over the years the club have dropped down the pecking order in English football but a revival which has seen the club come back from the brink has woken the up the fans of this old club and with further ground re-developments in the pipeline it is a good time to be a Blackpool supporter.

The Gaffer


Ian Holloway is one the games liveliest characters and could be classed as one of the best motivators at this level, the Bristolian is in his 5th managerial role of his career and is loving his time at Blackpool.

His managerial career began at the same place as his playing career, his home town club Bristol Rovers, he took over as player boss there in 1996 and guided the struggling club to 17th in the 3rd tier in his first season, he followed this up with a 5th placed finish the year after but the club lost out in the play-offs, a 13th place finish in the 1998/99 season led Holloway to pack up his boots and concentrate on management, it had a good effect as the club finished 7th but missed out on the play offs by a narrow margin. Midway through the 2000/01 season with Rovers in 19th place in the division he was approached by QPR to save them from the drop to the third tier, he accepted the challenge but couldn’t keep the club up.

After a season of consolidation in his first full term he guided them to the play offs in his second term, Cardiff denied them with an extra time winner, however 12 months later The R’s finished second and were back in the second tier of English football, he led the R’s to 11th in their first season back in the Championship and their were 14th when he was put on garden leave following rife speculation linking him with the vacant Leicester City job, he left the R’s disappointed and wasn’t appointed at Leicester.

In June 2006 he was appointed Plymouth Argyle manager and vowed to get the club into the Premier League, Argyle flirted with the play-offs several times in his first season but unfortunately ended it in 11th place. In November 2007, 21 months after initial being linked with the Leicester City job he was appointed manager at the Walkers but he only lasted 32 games as the club were relegated to League One, he resigned.

He took over from caretaker boss Tony Parkes at Bloomfield Road in the summer.

Key Players

David Vaughan


With Charlie Adam suspended the mantle of play-maker may well fall on the shoulders of David Vaughan, the Welsh international is in his second season with the Tangerines after joining from Real Sociedad in August 2008 for a reputed £200k.

David came through the ranks at Crewe Alexandra, initially as a left back before Dario Gradi converted him to a left midfielder, he made his debut in the 2000/01 season but was restricted to just one outing that season.

After making his debut he would wait another 17 months before making another first team appearance when he replaced Phil Charnock in a Boxing Day defeat to Walsall, he scored his first goal a month later in a 4-2 win over Rotherham in the FA Cup, he made 16 appearances in all competitions that season as the Alex were relegated.

He became a first team regular following the drop to League One and made 39 appearances scoring 4 goals as the Alex bounced straight back up; he made his international debut for Wales at the end of the season as well.

With Crewe back in the Championship he had a solid if unspectacular 2003/04 season making 33 appearances but failed to score, the 2004/05 was the best to date in terms of appearances, he made 48 in all competitions and scored 6 goals as Crewe survived by the virtual of 1 goal, the following year he made 36 appearances and scored 5 times as the Alex finished 22nd in the table and were relegated.

Back in League One he netted 4 times in 35 appearances for the Alex as they finished mid-table he played one further game the following season before signing for Chris Coleman at Real Sociedad for £300k.

He lasted just 9 games in Spain, his year long spell with the Basque club saw him net once in nine games and following Chris Colemans dismissal he wasn’t picked, he moved to Blackpool for £200k ahead of the 2008/09 season.

He has appeared 64 times for the Tangerines and has netted on 3 occasions so far.

Squad Number 11

DJ Campbell


Dudley Junior or DJ for short is back at Blackpool in his second loan spell with the club, he re-signed on deadline til the end of the season from play-off rivals Leicester.
DJ came through the ranks at Aston Villa but left in 2000 after failing to secure a professional contract, he dropped down to the Isthmian league to join Chesham United where he netted 16 times in 29 appearances, the goals alerted Conference side Stevenage whom he joined in May 2001.
His spell at Stevenage was a frustrating one and in his two years there he played just 23 times for the club he scored just three times and had a spell Billericay Town on loan, he left Stevenage in February 2003 to join Isthmian Division One North side Yeading on a free transfer.

DJ spent just over two years with Yeading but it was a successful one for both himself and the club, he helped them win the Division One title in 2003 and the Premier League in 2005 as well as fire them through the FA Cup 3rd round where they played Newcastle, he netted 83 goals in 109 appearances for Yeading and this persuaded Martin Allen to spend £5,000 on him to bring into Brentford in June 2005.

DJ spent just seven months with the Bees as his goalscoring exploits earned him rave reviews and a move to the Premier League, he netted 12 times for the club in 28 appearances including two against Sunderland in the FA Cup which saw Birmingham spend a cool half a million to sign him.

The Blues were fighting relegation when he joined the club but he couldn’t help them avoid the drop and failed to score in his 11 Premier League appearances but netted on the first game of the following season in a 2-1 win over Colchester, he scored a further 9 times for the Blues until February before being dropped by Steve Bruce but the potato faced one had to back down when he had an injury crisis left him short of players, DJ stepped in and scored two more in a 3-0 at Coventry, those goals helped the Blues to promotion.

Leicester paid £1.6m for the striker as the Blues deemed him surplus to requirements, however he wasn’t a success for the Foxes scoring 5 goals in 32 games as they fell out of the Championship, he played a further 11 times in the 2008/09 season for the club without scoring and joined Blackpool on loan in January of last year and scored on his debut in a 2-1 defeat at Coventry, he went on to get 8 more in 19 appearances to help the Tangerines to mid table.

He returned to Leicester in the summer but was frozen out and made just 3 appearances for the club leaving him frustrated, he joined Derby on loan and scored on his debut in a 2-2 draw, he made 7 more appearances for the Rams adding two more goals before rejoining Blackpool last week.

Squad Number 16

Alex Baptiste


Centre half Alex began his career with Mansfield Town as a junior, he made his debut for the Stags as a 17 year old in April 2003 in a League One clash with Barnsley, he made 3 more appearances towards the end of that season.

In late 2003 he joined Tamworth on loan to gain more experience, he spent a month with the club making 4 league appearances, later that season he joined Burton Albion for a similar spell and appeared 3 times for the Brewers, upon his return he began to establish himself in the Stags starting line up and helped them reach the League Two play-offs only to be beaten by Huddersfield.
He made 46 appearances for the Stags in the 2004/05 season scoring twice, he followed this up with 48 appearances the season and was an ever present in the 2006/07 season making 53 appearances in all competitions.

The 2007/08 season was a struggle both personally and for the club, he missed the 3 months of the season through injury and made just 26 appearances as the stags were relegated to the Conference, he used the relegation as a get out clause and joined Blackpool in July 2008.
He didn’t get into the first team until November 2008 but has been a mainstay in the defence ever since and has racked up over 50 appearances for the Tangerines, netting 3 goals.

Squad Number 15


Team News

Charlie Adam, Neal Eardley, Ishmel Demontagnac and Barry Bannan are set to miss out, Adam is suspended whilst Bannan, Eardley and Demontagnac have been dropped for disciplinary reasons after being caught going out on Saturday evening.

Team (possible): Gilks; Baptiste, Edwards, Evatt, Crainey; Southern; Vaughan, Euell, Taylor-Fletcher; Dobbie, Campbell;

(subs from) Burgess, Almond, Butler, Bangura, Rachubka, Husband, Martin, Nardiello.

Head to Head

Bartosz Slusarski flicked home a second half goal to secure the Owls a point on Boxing Day 2008, Alan Gow fired the visitors into the lead from the spot in the 48th minute following a Lewis Buxton foul on Shaun Barker.
The season previously the Owls again had to come from behind to get something from the game, Wes Hoolahan had fired the Tangerines into a 1st half lead but two goals in 5 second half minutes from Marcus Tudgay and Richard Hinds won it for struggling Wednesday.

You have to go back to the 2004/05 season for another meeting, two goals from Drew Talbot, a missed penalty by Lee Peacock, a goalkeeper injury for the Owls and a solo effort by Craig Rocastle were some of the highlights from this entertaining five goal thriller which the Owls edged, Keith Southern and John Murphy replied for the visitors.

The 2003/04 season was a bad one for the Owls and the Tangerines secured two wins at S6 during the campaign, Scott Taylor’s 79th minute goal sealed all three points for Blackpool in the league meeting whilst goals by Mike Sheron and Keith Southern completed a 3-0 aggregate win in the LDV Vans trophy Northern final.
Blackpool first played at Hillsborough in 1921 and walked away 1-0 winners but the Owls bounced back with a 5-1 win the season after.

The highest win for the Owls over Blackpool at S6 was 7-1 in November 1931, Mark Hooper hit a hat-trick with further goals from Jimmy Seed, Jack Ball, Harry Burgess and Ellis Rimmer (Wednesday won their next home fixture 9-1). The biggest away win came on Christmas Day 1924 when they walked away from S6 with a 6-2 win.


Overall at Hillsborough:

Owls: 23

Draw: 5

Tangerines: 10

Final thoughts

Wednesday are just two points above the drop zone after Saturdays results and will be looking to put some distance between themselves and the bottom three over the next week or so with three home matches on the horizon but it will be a tough task against a hard working Blackpool side so it may not be pretty.

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