THE Wembley dream is well and truly over for Blackpool fans.

Their team's season of promise which crumbled in ruins in the past few weeks is now dead and buried.

There will be NO promotion this side of the ocean and NO trip to Wembley this side of Christmas.

Dejected fans trooped home from Bloomfield Road last night, their hopes shattered and their heads shaking in disbelief at having seen the Tangerines literally throw away a 2-0 lead which they brought back from Bradford last Sunday.

They were outgunned and outplayed by a Bradford team fired up for the occasion, while the Seasiders performed like a damp squid to slump to a shocking 3-0 defeat.

Stunned Blackpool officials trooped silently from the directors' box - their fears expressed at half-time having been realised.

Now, chairman Owen Oyston will have to wait at least another year for a team that will enjoy the status fit for his new super stadium.

It marks the end of a season of ups and downs for the Seasiders.

After a shaky start, including two defeats at the hands of Bradford in August, Blackpool settled down and did not fall out of the top six from the beginning of September until the end of the season.

A 2-1 victory over fellow high-flyers Crewe on September 23 lifted Pool to second spot. Skipper Andy Morrison won the Citizen's Player of the Month in October, playing an influential role in Pool's defence in a month when they conceded just four goals in five games.

November began with Blackpool's toughest test of the season at Swindon, where they earned a 1-1 draw, boosting the confidence of the side and strengthening their impressive away form.

At Christmas, Blackpool were in fourth spot in the league and were looking forward to a Third Round FA Cup tie at First Division Huddersfield Town.

But the Seasiders were cruelly knocked out of the competition at Leeds Road on January 9 and they took no further part in the Auto Windscreen Shield when Chesterfield knocked them out of that cup three days later.

Their league form, however, went from strength to strength, as Pool were beaten only once during the first three months of 1996 and Sam Allardyce picked up the Manager of the Month award for February and March.

By the end of March, automatic promotion seemed to be a formality - Blackpool were top of the league and the play-offs were unthinkable.

But a nightmare April in which Blackpool lost four out of six games allowed Oxford to steal the second automatic promotion spot and make Blackpool face the play-offs.

A 2-0 win at Valley Parade in the first leg against Bradford was beyond most fans' wildest dreams and many were already thinking of Wembley, but on Wednesday night it was City's supporters who were booking the trip to London.

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