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Varney: Blackpool Can't Be Underestimated - Ipswich Town News

Town loanee Luke Varney has warned it would be wrong to underestimate Blackpool at Portman Road on Saturday, even if they are already destined for the drop down to League One.

The Blackburn striker, who has scored once in eight league appearances for Town, remembers how he came out on top as a Leeds player at Watford two years ago and helped deny the Hornets promotion to the Premier League.

He recalled: "I’ve been in the situation before where you are made to feel you are just going along to make up the numbers and the game is a formality.

"When I was at Leeds we went to Watford on the very last day of the 2012/13 season. They needed to win to get promoted to the Premier League and it was said we had nothing to play for.

"But we ended up beating them 2-1. Before the game we were saying that no one cared what we were there for and that it was all about Watford.

"We hadn’t won away for something like 16 games but we ran about and beat them. The Championship is a notoriously tough place to get results anyway and unless we apply ourselves properly on Saturday we’ll get stung again like we did at Huddersfield on Easter Monday.”

Blackpool still need two more points to avoid going into the record books as the worst Championship side of all time, a claim that currently belongs to Stockport County after they accumulated just 26 points in finishing bottom of what was known as the Nationwide League Division One 13 years ago.

Varney added: "When I played for Blackpool in the Premier League four years ago we were so blasé, playing attacking football all the time. They will come here and be dangerous, the same as Huddersfield were, and we’ll have to start well and make our presence felt. We can’t afford to take them lightly.

"Our fans have been brilliant and we’ve put in a lot of good performances, especially since I’ve been here. If we do what we should do on the pitch the fans will be behind us.

"We won’t be treating Blackpool any differently to the other sides we have played at home and we’ll be trying to start well and put them under pressure for the first 15 or 20 minutes.

"It will be interesting to see how their mood is towards the game now that they have been relegated. They might give some players a run-out, you just don’t know, but from our point of view we will be going all-out to chalk up another home win.

"I think their fans will give me a good reception. I think they were proud of us as a team when we went into the Premier League and gave it a real go.

"We were on a shoestring budget compared to others and I like to think I have a good rapport with their supporters. When I’ve been back they have applauded me, which has been nice.

"But now it’s all about helping Ipswich into the play-offs. I’m not looking at the points total, just the next two home games because they are so important. We want to get them sorted out before we have a massive game at Wolves.

"Four wins from our last five would be great and it’s definitely something we will be looking at. We’re a point down on what we wanted and if we had nicked one at Huddersfield it would have made a big difference but we can still get that back somewhere along the line.”

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