Manchester United 4 // Blackpool 2
MANCHESTER // The tangerine balloons released by the Blackpool fans drifted over the vast hordes of the home support, towards the directors' box or the pitch. They were illuminating Old Trafford, much as the team has lit up the Premier League.
But Manchester Unitedare no sentimentalists. The balloons, like Blackpool's bubble, were burst. The tangerine dream is no longer. Blackpool are relegated.
Cruelly, dramatically but somehow typically, they went down. With the smallest budget, with the smallest gates, with players who possessed virtually no Premier League pedigree, the ultimate underdogs came so close. For five, heady minutes yesterday at Old Trafford, they led. For much of the afternoon, survival beckoned.
But Blackpool already had proof of United's habit of staging comebacks - a 2-0 advantage became a 3-2 deficit at Bloomfield Road in January - and another ensured victory. United equalled the finest home record of the Premier League era, earning 18 wins and a draw on their own patch, but that was the statistical sideshow. Even when presented with the trophy, United's celebration was of secondary importance. Old Trafford afforded a standing ovation to Ian Holloway, but the quotable, quixotic Blackpool manager's reward for an extraordinary season was unjust in the extreme: relegation.
"The fat lady has finished singing and I don't like her tune," Holloway said. "I've got to swallow it. I'm really proud of my team's efforts. They bridged all sorts of gaps. I don't blame anyone. I honestly believed we could do it."
His belief was reflected on the pitch. A side with spirit and style had produced a comeback of their own.
After Park Ji-sung collected Dimitar Berbatov's pass to put United ahead, Blackpool responded. Charlie Adam, the captain whose summer departure was an inevitability whichever division they were in, fired in a free kick off the far post. His commitment has been unstinting, his quality a constant.
For all Adam's exploits, however, Blackpool are no one-man band. That was epitomised, when David Vaughan, the players' player of the year at Bloomfield Road, guided in a cross that Gary Taylor-Fletcher, a man whose roots are still lowlier than the club's, guided in. Improbably, incredibly, Blackpool led. United, who had not dropped a point at home for almost eight months trailed. Fortune, it seemed, had favoured the bold: Adam had tripped Park, but referee Mike Dean ignored the penalty appeals.
If only four of Sir Alex Ferguson's initial XI are likely to start the Champions League final, the chosen men had quality enough, however. It was illustrated in the equaliser, Anderson and Park exchanging passes before the Brazilian curled a shot in.
Even a draw, however, might not have meant been demotion for Blackpool. They fought for it, Matt Gilks saving superbly from Dimitar Berbatov's header and Alex Baptiste producing a goal-line clearance to thwart Nemanja Vidic. Then, however, disaster struck. Ian Evatt, at fault for United's first goal, extended a foot to meet Chris Smalling's low cross, diverting it past Gilks.
Ridiculously, the cumbersome defender had a shot at redemption, galloping clear at the other end. The retiring Edwin van der Sar, performing one last service in the United goal at Old Trafford, saved him. Then Michael Owen advanced, going through another gaping hole in the Blackpool defence to score.
It was, finally, game over.
Exit Blackpool, and exit Holloway, to a standing ovation from Old Trafford. Success carries a penalty. "I have probably got a very difficult job," he said. "I don't think the team will stay together. None of them will want to play in the Championship. The better ones will be snapped up by the vultures. My job is to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
It is something he has done once. To do so again will be still more awkward after an end-of-season exodus. It is the Championship for them, the Champions League final for United. "I don't think there's been a more dramatic season than this one," Ferguson said. He wasn't talking about Blackpool, but they have been responsible for much of the excitement.