Blackpool F.C.
Season 1970–71
League	Division One Football League First Division The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
Manager	Les Shannon Les Shannon Leslie "Les" Shannon was an English football player and manager.-Playing career:Shannon was born in Liverpool; a centre-forward, he started his playing career with his hometown club of Liverpool in November 1944... (succeeded by Jimmy Meadows Jimmy Meadows James "Jimmy" Meadows was an England international who started his playing career in 1949 at Third-Division Southport, with whom, later in life, he had his most successful period in management... , then Bob Stokoe Bob Stokoe Robert "Bob" Stokoe was an English footballer and manager who was able, almost uniquely, to transcend the traditional north-east rivalry between the region's footballing giants, Newcastle United and Sunderland.... )
League position	22nd (relegated)
Top goalscorer	League: Mickey Burns Mickey Burns Michael Edward "Mickey" Burns is an English former professional footballer.-Career:A former England amateur international, Burns was signed to Blackpool from the very successful amateur side Skelmersdale United in 1969 by Les Shannon...  (10) Combined: Mickey Burns Mickey Burns Michael Edward "Mickey" Burns is an English former professional footballer.-Career:A former England amateur international, Burns was signed to Blackpool from the very successful amateur side Skelmersdale United in 1969 by Les Shannon...  (10)
FA Cup FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...	Fourth round
League Cup Football League Cup The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...	Third round
Anglo-Italian Cup Anglo-Italian Cup The Anglo-Italian Cup is a defunct European football competition that was played intermittently between 1970 and 1996 between clubs from England and Italy. Founded by Gigi Peronace in 1970, following the success of the Anglo-Italian League Cup, it was played as a professional tournament until 1973...	Winners
Highest home attendance
Lowest home attendance
Previous season	← 1969–70
Next season	1971–72 →

The 1970–71 season was Blackpool F.C.

Blackpool F.C.

Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...

's 64th season (61st consecutive) in the Football League

The Football League

The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

. They competed in the 22-team Division One

Football League First Division

The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

, then the top tier of English football

Football in England

Association football is a national sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game...

, finishing bottom. As a result, they were relegated back to Division Two

Football League Second Division

From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...

 a season after their promotion from it, and did not compete in the top flight again until 2010–11.

Blackpool won the Anglo-Italian Cup

Anglo-Italian Cup

The Anglo-Italian Cup is a defunct European football competition that was played intermittently between 1970 and 1996 between clubs from England and Italy. Founded by Gigi Peronace in 1970, following the success of the Anglo-Italian League Cup, it was played as a professional tournament until 1973...

 for the first and only time, beating Bologna

Bologna F.C. 1909

Bologna Football Club 1909, known simply as Bologna, is an Italian Football League club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, formed in 1993. The club are nicknamed the rossoblù because of the red and blue striped shirts they wear. Red and Blue are the official colours of the town.During its history...

 2–1 in the final at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara

Stadio Renato Dall'Ara

Stadio Renato Dall'Ara is a multi-purpose stadium in Bologna, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football matches and the home of Bologna F.C. 1909. The stadium was built in 1927 and holds 38,279...

 in the Italian city

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

.

Les Shannon

Les Shannon

Leslie "Les" Shannon was an English football player and manager.-Playing career:Shannon was born in Liverpool; a centre-forward, he started his playing career with his hometown club of Liverpool in November 1944...

 left his position as manager during the season after only seventeen months in charge. He was replaced, in a caretaker manager

Caretaker manager

In association football, a caretaker manager is someone who takes temporary charge of the management of a football club, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caretaker may also be appointed if the regular manager is ill or unable to attend to his...

 role, by Jimmy Meadows

Jimmy Meadows

James "Jimmy" Meadows was an England international who started his playing career in 1949 at Third-Division Southport, with whom, later in life, he had his most successful period in management...

. Meadows was, in turn, succeeded by Bob Stokoe

Bob Stokoe

Robert "Bob" Stokoe was an English footballer and manager who was able, almost uniquely, to transcend the traditional north-east rivalry between the region's footballing giants, Newcastle United and Sunderland....

.

Mickey Burns

Mickey Burns

Michael Edward "Mickey" Burns is an English former professional footballer.-Career:A former England amateur international, Burns was signed to Blackpool from the very successful amateur side Skelmersdale United in 1969 by Les Shannon...

 was the club's top scorer, with ten goals.

Jimmy Armfield

Jimmy Armfield

James Christopher "Jimmy" Armfield, CBE, DL is an English former professional football player and manager who currently works as a football pundit for BBC Radio Five Live. He played the whole of his Football League career at Blackpool, usually at right back...

 retired at the end of the season after seventeen years of service for Blackpool, his only professional club. His final appearance was against Manchester United

Manchester United F.C.

Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...

 at Bloomfield Road

Bloomfield Road

Bloomfield Road is an all-seater football stadium in the English town of Blackpool, Lancashire. It has been the permanent home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901 and is named after the road on which the stadium's main entrance used to stand. The stadium has been in a process of redevelopment since 2000...

, in front of a crowd of 30,000. He had come back from an injury lay-off to make his swan song

Swan song

"Swan song" is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that the Mute Swan is completely silent during its lifetime until the moment just before death, when it sings one beautiful song...

. His 569 appearances remains a club record.

Table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GA	Pts
1	Arsenal Arsenal F.C. Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...	42	29	7	6	71	29	2.448	65
2	Leeds United	42	27	10	5	72	30	2.400	64
3	Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....	42	19	14	9	54	33	1.636	52
4	Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club that represents the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region. They are members of the Premier League, the highest level of English football. The club was founded in 1877 and since 1889 has played at...	42	22	8	12	64	54	1.185	52
5	Liverpool Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...	42	17	17	8	42	24	1.750	51
6	Chelsea Chelsea F.C. Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...	42	18	15	9	52	42	1.238	51
7	Southampton Southampton F.C. Southampton Football Club is an English football team, nicknamed The Saints, based in the city of Southampton, Hampshire. The club gained promotion to the Championship from League One in the 2010–2011 season after being relegated in 2009. Their home ground is the St Mary's Stadium, where the club...	42	17	12	13	56	44	1.273	46
8	Manchester United Manchester United F.C. Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...	42	16	11	15	65	66	0.985	43
9	Derby County Derby County F.C. Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...	42	16	10	16	56	54	1.037	42
10	Coventry City Coventry City F.C. Coventry City Football Club, otherwise known as the Sky Blues owing to the traditional colour of their strip, are a professional English Football league club based in Coventry...	42	16	10	16	37	38	0.974	42
11	Manchester City Manchester City F.C. Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...	42	12	17	13	47	42	1.119	41
12	Newcastle United Newcastle United F.C. Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End, and has played at its current home ground, St James' Park, since the merger...	42	14	13	15	44	46	0.957	41
13	Stoke City Stoke City F.C. Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts...	42	12	13	17	44	48	0.917	37
14	Everton Everton F.C. Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...	42	12	13	17	54	60	0.900	37
15	Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town F.C. Huddersfield Town Football Club is an English football club formed in 1908 and based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. They currently play in League One...	42	11	14	17	40	49	0.816	36
16	Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest F.C. Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...	42	14	8	20	42	61	0.689	36
17	West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion F.C. West Bromwich Albion Football Club, also known as West Brom, The Baggies, The Throstles, Albion or WBA, are an English Premier League association football club based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands...	42	10	15	17	58	75	0.773	35
18	Crystal Palace Crystal Palace F.C. Crystal Palace Football Club are an English Football league club based in South Norwood, London. The team plays its home matches at Selhurst Park, where they have been based since 1924. The club currently competes in the second tier of English Football, The Championship.Crystal Palace was formed in...	42	12	11	19	39	57	0.684	35
19	Ipswich Town Ipswich Town F.C. Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....	42	12	10	20	42	48	0.875	34
20	West Ham United West Ham United F.C. West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Upton Park, Newham, East London. They play in The Football League Championship. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. In 1904 the club relocated to their current...	42	10	14	18	47	60	0.783	34
21	Burnley Burnley F.C. Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...	42	7	13	22	29	63	0.460	27
22	Blackpool Blackpool F.C. Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...	42	4	15	23	34	66	0.515	23