On This Day – 25th January

League leaders Manchester United visited Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road on this day in 2011 and fought back to win the game 3-2 after going two goals down.

Blackpool were in their first season in the top flight for 40 years after promotion via the play-offs the previous season. Early results had been encouraging and their fans were treated to a 2-1 victory away to Liverpool on 3rd October.

Craig Cathcart gave the home side a surprise lead after a quarter of an hour with a header from a Charlie Adam corner. DJ Campbell then doubled Blackpool’s advantage two minutes later with a replica of the first goal.

The United team must have been given one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s renowned hairdryer treatments at half-time and came back strongly after the break. They scored three goals in sixteen minutes to win the game.

Dimitar Berbatov scored the first in the 72nd minute before Javier Hernandez equalised two minutes later. Berbatov added his second of the game in the 88th minute and United extended their lead at the top of the table to five points/

This was Blackpool’s third defeat in a row. They would go on and lose the next two games and only record two more victories before the end of the season. They were relegated on the final day of the season after a 4-2 defeat at Old Trafford, a game that at one point they were leading 2-1. If Ian Holloway’s men had held on to that lead they would have stayed in the top flight.

Manchester United won the Premier League title at the end of this season, finishing nine points ahead of runners-up Chelsea.

Blackpool have never returned to the top flight and suffered two consecutive defeats that took them down to League Two for the first time since 2001.

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