Blackpool promoted

Saturday, 22/05/2010

Veteran striker Brett Ormerod scored the goal that takes Blackpool to the Premier League for the first time.

His strike to make the score 3-2 against Cardiff City in the Championship play-off final at Wembley will be worth £90m to a side that was favourite to be relegated at the start of the season.

Yet Ian Holloway's side went 1-0 down to a Michael Chopra goal after nine minutes. Charlie Adam equalised from a free-kick just four minutes late. Joe Ledley restored the Bluebirds' lead on 37 minutes before Gary Taylor-Fletcher equalised on 41. Ormerod's winner came on the stroke of half-time.

A hoarse voiced Holloway said after the game: "These lads have been fantastic they have had belief in me, belief in themselves and deserve all the credit they get."

Ormerod admitted: "This is the best day of my career by far, it's unbelievable."

And Pool striker Ben Burgess joked: "If John Terry thinks the Wembley pitch is bad wait until he gets to Bloomfield Road." Burgess, who last year passed a journalism exam, added: "I couldn't have written a better story myself!"

Blackpool were last in England's top-flight in 1971 and slumped as low as the fourth tier of the country's football.

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