On Blackpool’s previous visit to this vast stadium in 2017, thousands of disenchanted supporters stayed away in protest at the toxic regime running the club but victory here, to seal a welcome return to the Championship after six years, capped a resounding feelgood tale. They have flourished under fresh ownership and the local-boy-done-good Simon Sadler, whose grey blazer ended up soaked through, was among those serenaded at the final whistle following a stirring comeback win over Lincoln.
When Neil Critchley left Liverpool for Blackpool last year, he stressed only something special could lure him from developing the next generation of Trent Alexander-Arnolds at Anfield, where he was under-23s coach, and the scene as the players gallivanted across the pitch with their medals to a backdrop of Status Quo, knee-sliding in unison before their supporters was just that.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would end at Wembley with an occasion like that but that was a reason I left Liverpool because I wanted to taste senior football, the highs, and the lows, a journey,” Critchley said. “When the final whistle went, I’ve never felt emotion like it. It was an incredible feeling.”
Wembley turned a shade of tangerine but the match-winner, Kenny Dougall, the first Australian to score in a club game at the ground, has unmissable bleach-blond highlights. His goals helped Blackpool to a sixth promotion via the play-offs – two more than any other side. And he became the first player to score more than once for Blackpool in a match at Wembley since Stan Mortensen scored a hat-trick in the 1953 Cup final.
It was that date that supporters nodded to when they invaded the Bloomfield Road pitch six years ago, when Blackpool last tasted life in the second tier, in protest against the bungled ownership of the Oyston family. The deafening noise emanating from the Blackpool end at the final whistle here represented a different era.
“Through adversity you see strength and through that you see passion,” Critchley said. “To give them a night like this – maybe a few days for some of them – is brilliant. It’s been a great season and I couldn’t be prouder. A special mention for Simon, this is for him.”
When Dougall doubled his and Blackpool’s tally, a tangerine army flooded down the stairwells behind the Lincoln goal, among them a gentleman wearing a luminous orange suit, tie, bucket hat, and brogues. Dougall’s first goal stemmed from Lincoln’s Jorge Grant overplaying 30 yards from his own goal. Elliot Embleton slipped in his teammate after a shot of his own was repelled and Dougall cleverly shifted his feet before finding the corner.
The former Liverpool midfielder Kevin Stewart, whose last match here saw him pit his wits against Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta five years ago, helped Blackpool maintain their grip. Nine minutes after the interval Blackpool were in dreamland, a state of euphoria they had not felt since the heady days in the Premier League following promotion under Ian Holloway, who was in the stands and among the first to congratulate Critchley at full-time.
Jerry Yates unselfishly occupied two Lincoln defenders after controlling Demetri Mitchell’s cross and located Dougall lurking inside the D. Dougall arrowed an almost identical strike to his opener in to send the Seasiders wild.
Lincoln were deflated but they have made enormous strides since promotion from non-league under the Cowley brothers four years ago. “We’ve come a long way, we need to keep progressing and keep getting ourselves into these positions where we’re competing in these types of games,” said Michael Appleton, the impressive Lincoln manager once of Blackpool. “Once they got themselves back into the game, their tails were up. This was our 61st game of the season – I think only Manchester City and Manchester United have played more games than us. We fell short at the last hurdle.”
As Critchley said, if there was a manual for how not to start a play-off final, this was it. Lincoln got off to a flyer, despite arriving at the ground 45 minutes before kick-off owing to a serious accident on London’s North Circular road, delaying their journey from their Marylebone hotel.
The electric Brennan Johnson, on loan from Nottingham Forest, streamed down the right before bamboozling the left-back Luke Garbutt and the Blackpool defender Ollie Turton sent Johnson’s teasing cross past his goalkeeper, Chris Maxwell, after 48 seconds.
Grant rattled the woodwork with a smart effort approaching the half‑hour but Blackpool hit back to equalise, and then turned the tide.
