Blackpool's hunt for loan goalkeeper is top priority for Ian Holloway

Typically, Ian Holloway has big plans for Blackpool's week off. His priority, having halted a slide of five consecutive Premier League defeats, is to sign a goalkeeper on emergency loan. Then he fancies heading to Spain for a Pep talk. Time is precious for Blackpool's manager, given his team's increasingly precarious position above the relegation zone, and he intends to invest it wisely. Elimination from the FA Cup has opened a hole in the calendar next weekend and he has been making tentative plans, via a contact in Spain, for a busman's holiday to Barcelona, with the ultimate aim of a chat with their coach, Pep Guardiola. Holloway's obsession with Spanish football developed in the year he spent out of work after his dismissal by Leicester in 2008. When he returned to management with Blackpool he decided to replicate Barcelona's three-pronged attack and until recently he did so with stunning results. "If I am modelling myself on anything it is over there," he said. "I like what they do and how they play and that is why I want to go and see what I can learn from them." But the schedule is tight. Barcelona face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night and Holloway has another matter to attend to before Athletic Bilbao's visit to the Camp Nou next Sunday: his chairman Karl Oyston's wedding. "I've got an invite and I've also got to go shopping for the cheapest present I can find, pin the receipt to it and show how little I spent," Holloway said. "He will be getting something horrendous." He was less jovial about his goalkeeping problems. Blackpool received special dispensation from the Premier League to borrow a goalkeeper outside the transfer window, before his side took only their fourth point of 2011. However, Holloway was stymied by the small print. Moves for Manchester City's Shay Given, Manchester United's Tomasz Kuszczak and Ben Alnwick of Tottenham were rebuffed because of their clubs' involvement in Europe. So with Matt Gilks and Paul Rachubka ruled out, the teenager Chris Kettings sat on the bench here. "The top clubs have had to name goalkeepers to go into the Champions League and Europa League," said Holloway. "If we sign one of them, even with a day's recall in place, they have to take their name off their squad list and they cannot replace them, which is absolute madness." Being precluded from signing anyone out of contract, because Blackpool's 25-man squad list is full, and restricted to domestic acquisitions by the terms of the dispensation, have intensified Holloway's frustration. "If I go too far down the divisions, the goalkeeper who is good enough will be playing in their first team so they won't want to lend him," he said. "So what are we going to do? We are absolutely smashing our head on a brick wall." Blackpool were value for their draw, which was sealed with Elliot Grandin's 14th-minute header from a Charlie Adam corner. But they could not make more of their numerical advantage after Jean Makoun was shown a red card for a two-footed lunge on DJ Campbell 20 minutes from time. Fielding two forwards who scored for England last week, in Darren Bent and Ashley Young, Aston Villa went ahead when Gabriel Agbonlahor, operating on the left of midfield, beat the offside trap and rounded Richard Kingson. Agbonlahor, who pulled out of the England squad last week for personal reasons, said: "Everyone is playing in positions that they might not want to play in, but for the good of the team you have to get on with it and that's what I'm doing at the moment. I'm not kicking up a fuss."