Holloway seeks home comforts

Holloway's side play only their second game at Bloomfield Road since winning promotion to the Premier League when they take on Blackburn tomorrow. Building work has meant four of the Tangerines' first five games have been on the road and two of them have proved rude awakenings - a 6-0 hammering at Arsenal and a 4-0 thrashing by Chelsea. "Whatever we'd have done we'd still be out there now languishing against a team that are light years ahead of us," said Holloway of the Stamford Bridge drubbing. "Whatever I did, whatever I tried they were better than us. "At half-time it was already done and dusted - they were that good, they scored a goal every 10 minutes. "But let's move on. We've got Blackburn at home. "It'll be nice to have a home game. We have only had one home game and that seems a lifetime ago. "When I walked across the grass I thought I was on someone else's pitch. "I want to try to score some goals. If we can do that, we might be a handful. "I counted six chances that we created against Chelsea although the game was dead by half-time. "We didn't like the way that felt - to be wiped away, flushed down the toilet, by half-time was hard to take. "But we have just got to get on with it and our home form might help us come the end of the season." Despite those two heavy losses in London, Blackpool have still made an encouraging start to their first season back in the top flight for 40 years. Wins over Wigan and Newcastle, along with a draw against Fulham in their one home match, have helped them to seven points from five games. Even so, Holloway admits playing in the Premier League still seems a surreal experience. "We are delighted to have this sort of opportunity," he said. "Still when I see Chelsea v Blackpool and Blackpool v Blackburn Rovers it doesn't compute yet. "I sat there last week looking at the ticket with the lion on. It is pretty scary when you think how far we have come. "But dreams can quickly turn into nightmares and I don't want that." Holloway is aware of the hard work necessary to survive and is expecting no favours from either Blackburn or former Blackpool boss Sam Allardyce this weekend. Allardyce is a manager Holloway holds in the highest regard and feels his teams are unjustly portrayed as physical or direct. "That is a total injustice," said Holloway. "The man plays some brilliant football and always has. "It is a man's game and it's a contact sport - don't ever forget that. "His team is really good, so we have got a tough test on our hands. "He is a fantastic manager and I will be delighted to welcome him here. "Apparently he used to be Blackpool manager so hopefully he won't be too upset with anyone that was here during his time!" Holloway has publicly remained his usual jovial self since the chastening trip to Chelsea, when he admitted he got his tactics wrong. The former QPR and Plymouth boss joked about television adverts and his groundsman's new mower in his pre-match press conference, but knows when to crack the whip. Holloway said: "I don't think there is any shame picking the ball out of the net against Chelsea as many times as we had to in the first half when they are playing at that level. "I think the fourth goal summed it up when one of my players gave the ball away and just stood there feeling all sorry for himself. "I can't tolerate that - it's just not good enough. "Last year, the run we went on, nothing fazed us. We were not embarrassed - we didn't have any ego problem. "We just got on with what we did and thought about scoring goals. "We have got to try to give as good account of ourselves as we can. "We have got our home crowd behind us because it almost feels like we have forgotten what it is like to play here. "It was so great against Fulham. We waited so long for that and we can't wait to do it again. The atmosphere was unbelievable. "We want to try to keep that going."