Inside story of the Premier League's most dramatic Survival Sunday
| Published date | 22 May 2021 |
| Publication title | Daily Mirror, The: Web Edition Articles (London, England) |
Wolves winger Matt Jarvis regularly mentions the word “surreal” to describe the 90 minutes he experienced.
For Blackpool manager Ian Holloway, he recalls “desolation” and “pride” in equal measure, whilst Liam Ridgewell remembers a “massive low point”.
Whilst the events of May 22, 2011 evoke different memories from each of those involved, they can now look back and reflect on the day they were involved in one of the most dramatic days in Premier League history.
For the first -and only -time in Premier League history, five clubs at risk of relegation entered the final day separated by just a single point.
Whilst West Ham ’s fate had been confirmed, Wolves, Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Birmingham City and Wigan were all in danger of the drop.
Over the course of the 90 minutes that followed, all five clubs spent one time or another in the relegation zone.
This is the story of the Premier League’s most dramatic Survival Sunday, told by those who were there, 10 years on.
High stakes
Chasing a place in the Premier League is the ultimate ambition -but staying at the highest level is another matter.
Jason Roberts played over 500 games in the Football League during the course of his career.
But it is the day on which he scored his final Premier League goal to help keep Blackburn Rovers in the top flight that stands out as the day on which the stakes were highest.
“One thing I would say is just the pressure,” Roberts, now Director of Development at Concacaf, recalls.
“From all my time in football, I don’t think I’ve ever felt pressure like trying to avoid relegation going into a game.
“You’re fully aware that for a club like Blackburn, it’s people’s livelihoods at stake. It effects those who work at the club, as players we had relegation clauses in our contracts and stuff like that, so the knock-on effects of what happens in that scenario are huge.”
Liam Ridgewell, who had helped lead Birmingham City to promotion to the top flight two years earlier, says: “We knew what it’d do to a club to get relegated. Not just for the players, but for everyone connected.
“Extra chefs, extra ground staff, all those people that are potentially going to lose their jobs, and that was hard for all of us.”
For all those involved from the five clubs at risk, it was a day where there was no avoiding the fact that what transpired over the next 90 minutes would have life-changing consequences.
Blackpool dragged in as Wigan cling on
Blackpool’s debut season in the Premier League was the feel-good story of the first half of the campaign.
Ian Holloway’s fearless side had claimed numerous scalps, including doing the double over Liverpool, but slipped into the relegation battle.
A last-gasp Jermaine Defoe equaliser against Tottenham was a bitter pill to swallow, but a 4-3 win in a thriller against Bolton in their final home game meant they went to Old Trafford on the final day with hopes of survival.
Holloway says: “I just remember the heartbreak of a couple of weeks before, when we were winning after 90 minutes and Jermaine Defoe comes on and scores an equaliser.
“That was still hanging in our heads, but we’d been on a really good run. We beat Bolton 4-3 at home, and we needed to beat them.
“But then we knew we had to go to Manchester United, who were already champions, at their ground, so we were on a hiding to nothing.”
There was one big problem for the Tangerines in the form of Wigan Athletic.
“Wigan just kept winning, beating everybody!” Holloway recalls. “We’d only just dropped into the bottom three and it was a last shot for all of us.”
At one stage, Roberto Martinez’s side looked dead and buried before launching a late survival push which they took to the final day via a 94th minute...
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