There would be a lovely irony if Blackpool picked up their first point of the season on Saturday. Not for any other reason than it would be against a man who has given Seasiders fans more during his time in charge than most will experience in a lifetime. The glory days of the Ian Holloway era will become the stuff of folklore in years to come and something Jose Riga can only dream of.

When we set out on that Premier League journey at Wigan with the papers full of tangerine, sticker albums full of Blackpool players and Match of the Day ready to unleash Ollie on to an unsuspecting world, I remember thinking 'enjoy every minute of this', If we're all honest the chances are it will not happen again during most of our lifetimes. Why should Blackpool have a right to top flight football again over 30 or so bigger clubs outside the Premier League? Like so many sides who've crept in through the back door it's only ever a short stay but one that will be long remembered. Hopefully the same won't be true about our time in the Championship which at the moment looks seriously under threat.

Jose Riga has had his much talked about week off to get his players training. Fitness levels should have improved, players awareness of their team mates will hopefully be more evident and the way that Riga wants his team to play should now be instilled in to them. Whilst the Chairman says that we should now be playing more cohesively, the pre-sesaosn shambles excuse has still been acceptable even up to Wigan but now we should be able to go and compete against the likes of Millwall. With only a handful of injuries and a team that should now have gelled, it will be interesting to see what this group of players can do. Three points on Saturday won't take Riga's side very far up the table but to be out of the bottom three at the start of the international break would be a welcome sight.

After a decent start to the season, Millwall have struggled in their last 3 games and were knocked out of the League Cup by Southampton on Tuesday and hopefully tired legs may play a part. To go through the whole of August without anything, whilst not unexpected for some, would make the league table look unpalatable viewing for Blackpool fans during the two week break.

Photo: Action Images

crewcut added 10:09 - Aug 29 The photo of Ollie above does him no favours and shows how the strain of the last five years has taken its toll on his once cherubic face and silenced a good deal of his cocky strutting sound-bites.
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steve_g added 11:23 - Aug 30 He looks like a tramp!
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