Today (March 9) marks the anniversary of Blackpool fans returning to Bloomfield Road in their numbers following a period of boycott.
Jay Spearing states captaining Blackpool on the day fans returned to Bloomfield Road is a privilege he will never forget.
On this day (March 9) in 2019, Seasiders supporters ended their four-year period of boycott following the removal of the Oyston ownership, with Simon Sadler taking over the reins.
There was an attendance of 15,871 for a meeting with Southend United, as Taylor Moore snatched a late equaliser as the game finished in a 2-2 draw.
When Spearing, who is now a player-coach with Liverpool’s youth team, made the move to the Fylde Coast in 2017, his first few years in Tangerine were during some of the club’s darkest times, but admits that created a bond within the playing squad.
“When I joined it was an eye-opener - I had heard things about the fans not being there, but didn’t expect it to be the way it was,” he said.
“I knew all of the stuff that had gone on off the field with the old owners and why the fans did it. It was something I had never experienced before but we just had to concentrate on the football.
“At the end of the day, it’s a bit of a cliche, but we just had to focus on what we were doing. You can’t get drawn into stuff that was going on because our job is on the field.
“It was a decent group of lads, and we just wanted to play football. We let that outside noise be controlled by other people and not ourselves. We concentrated on what we could affect.
“We were a close group that had come together. We had a lot of things going on with the training ground and washing our own kit. Those things can knock a lot of groups, and lads can go the other way and give up, but it galvanised and we were able to adapt to the things being thrown at us.
“We stayed together, and with whatever was thrown at us - no one fell by the wayside.”
Jay Spearing (Photographer Stephen White/CameraSport)placeholder image
Jay Spearing (Photographer Stephen White/CameraSport) | CameraSport - Stephen White
Spearing admits even the talks of a takeover in 2019 gave the Blackpool squad additional drive to produce the best football possible.
“We got told things were moving quickly with the takeover, and there was excitement more than anything else,” he added.
“I’d seen the club going to the Premier League when I was younger, and the size it was.
“We were excited about getting the fans back and experiencing it for ourselves. It was another lift and a drive to do well so when they did come back it was positive.
“There was excitement when the news broke that the takeover had been done, and then there was an exciting bit of finding out how many tickets were getting sold - the number just kept growing and growing. We knew it was going to be something special.
“We were buzzing for the game. Driving up in the morning with my family, again, there was excitement. The roads were busier than ever, they hadn’t been like that since I’d been there.
“Stepping out of the car, seeing the fans waiting and hearing them along the front, it was a real special moment.”
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Blackpool fans | CameraSport - Richard Martin-Rob
For the Southend game, Spearing wore the armband and led the Blackpool team out of the tunnel.
“Coming out to the warm-up to a near enough jam packed Bloomfield Road was a mad one to take in,” he stated.
“We all half laughed to be honest, in a positive way, because we realised it was actually here. It sounds cliched, but we had to concentrate on the game.
“Being able to captain the side and walking them out in that moment was a proper honour and a privilege for me.
“It’s an unbelievable thing. I’ve still got the programme and the photos, it’ll be with me forever.
“I look back on with an unbelievable feeling of knowing I was a huge part of it. To be able to captain them at all was a privilege, but to be the captain who walked out the side on that day is even more special.
“My career is pretty much nearly done now, but when I look back in 10, 15, 20 years, it’ll be a day I’ll remember until I’m old.
“It’s up there with the occasion and why it was done - how long those fans had suffered with what was going on with the old regime. To get their club back and be bought by a Blackpool-born man, I can’t describe how good it was.
“The goal in the last minute and the pitch invasion was mad, it was a special day.”
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