The 1990âÂÂ91 season was Blackpool F.C.'s 83rd season (80th consecutive) in the Football League. They competed in the 24-team Division Four, then the fourth tier of English football. They finished fifth, missing out on automatic promotion by one point after a final-day defeat at Walsall, and made the play-offs; however, they lost in the final, against Torquay United, in a penalty-shootout after the game finished 2âÂÂ2 after normal and extra time.
Graham Carr was replaced as manager by his assistant, Billy Ayre, on 30 November. Between 10 November and the end of the season, the club went on to record thirteen consecutive League wins at Bloomfield Road.
Dave Bamber was the club's top scorer, with seventeen league goals.
Blackpool and Scunthorpe United met in the two-legged semi-finals of the play-offs. The first leg, played at Glanford Park on 19 May, finished 1âÂÂ1. Three days later, Blackpool won the return leg at Bloomfield Road 2âÂÂ0, courtesy of a double by David Eyres, and took the tie 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate. Blackpool's celebration of reaching Wembley since the famous "Matthews Final" thirty-eight years earlier was overshadowed by the news that their former player and manager Stan Mortensen, who scored a hat-trick in that final, had died earlier in the day, at the age of 69.
On 31 May, Blackpool met Torquay United in the final at Wembley. The game finished 2âÂÂ2 after normal time and extra time. It went to a penalty-shootout, which Torquay won 5âÂÂ4. Dave Bamber missed the decisive penalty, the second of sudden death, putting it well wide of Gareth Howells' left-hand post.
Players used: 24
Total goals scored: 84 (plus four own-goals)