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Independent - Tower power: Old pals' act for Evatt and Ollie after settling scores
Working relationships have been known to start better than the one between Ian Evatt and the man who will send him out at Wembley next Saturday with a friendly, encouraging slap on the back.
It was a few postcodes round the North Circular at Queens Park Rangers that the Blackpool central defender first became acquainted with the odd-ball managerial style of Ian Holloway five summers ago.
Evatt was on no more than a list of potential targets at Loftus Road when Holloway's family holiday was interrupted by a call from an excited chairman telling him the player's £150,000 move from Chesterfield was in the bag.
Holloway was angry the deal had gathered such momentum in his absence, told the player there was a delay and later admitted there were teething troubles even once the forms had been completed. The union didn't last. The manager went first (on gardening leave, then to Plymouth Argyle) and the player followed him out of Shepherd's Bush by joining Blackpool on an extended loan that preceded their promotion from League One via the 2007 play-offs. There were clearly no hard feelings, though, when the two were reunited at Bloomfield Road last summer.
"The way the gaffer likes to play is fine for me," said Evatt. "We play an open game which might not sound ideal for a central defender but he enjoys seeing us all on the ball. I love passing it out from the back and we're going into games knowing we have a lot of firepower and the ability to set things up for the forwards. The games against Nottingham Forest showed we are scoring plenty of goals and have a firm belief we can cause any team problems."
Evatt is 6ft 2in but baulks slightly at the suggestion that his four goals this season could have come only from set-pieces. Looking forward to next Saturday's Coca-Cola Championship play-off final against Cardiff City, he added: "Actually the one I scored against them in the League was a curler. I don't only head them in!"
Blackpool had already spent the first 10 and a bit of their 39 successive years out of English football's top flight when Evatt was born in Coventry in 1981. Having missed out on a ticket when his home-city club won the 1987 FA Cup, he made it to Wembley for the first time when Yeovil lost to Blackpool three years ago and has good vibes about this return visit.
"Keith Southern and me were saying a few weeks ago that the season was starting to feel just like that one in 2006-07. We have finished so strongly and our confidence is second to none."
The figures back him up. Three seasons ago, Blackpool won nine games out of 10 immediately before the final; this time it's eight out of 10 and Ian Evatt – "a fantastic lad" in the words of his manager – stands within touching distance of accompanying him into the Premier League.
David Instone Independent
