Harewood has found his home under Holloway

The seaside suits Marlon Harewood and he’s determined to star for Blackpool after three years in the wilderness at Aston Villa.

Striker Harewood, 31, left Villa Park on a Bosman this summer after making just one Premier League start for the club.

But he made an instant impact for the Tangerines with two goals on his debut for Ian Holloway’s promoted side in a stunning opening day 4-0 win at Wigan.

It was a sweet moment for the player who spent most of his time in Villa’s reserves following a £4million move from West Ham in July 2007.

Harewood hardly got a look-in under former Villa boss Martin O’Neill. And, ahead of Blackpool’s trip to Newcastle today, he rued: “I have missed a huge part of my career going to Villa.

“It was tough for me at Villa because I wasn’t playing. That was my down and now I am trying to get back to up. This is my time to try to rectify things.”

Harewood was desperate to stay in the top flight and snubbed more lucrative offers from abroad and the Championship to sign for the Seasiders.

But people thought he had lost his appetite in Villa’s reserves earning £27,000-a-week so it wasn’t easy for agent Phil Sproson to get him a new Premier League club.

He was at Heathrow, set to fly to Panathinaikos, when Blackpool tabled acceptable terms.

But Harewood is now enjoying his football again – even if he has to wash his own training kit and practise near a noisy airfield.

“The gaffer asked me to come and train and I loved the lads and what Ian Holloway is trying to do,” said the striker, who penned a two-year deal after impressing on trial.

“It’s a massive task for me to try to help them stay up. The facilities are not like Villa but that doesn’t matter because I am here to play football – and at least the showers are warm!

Harewood his found a superb team spirit which he says is hugely different to Villa, where O’Neill’s ­reluctance to utilise his squad angered players.

He added: “Everyone is smiling here – it is a good atmosphere. You walk into the dressing room and everyone is happy and can’t wait to train.

“You go into training feeling you are going to train to prepare for a game. You had lads at Villa playing week in week out and others not playing.

“No matter how hard they train they are not going to get in the team so the lads were demoralised. There were top class ­internationals who weren’t even playing.”

Harewood briefly escaped Villa on loan to Wolves and Newcastle but is now pleased to have moved on permanently while he believes Villa will be happier with O’Neill gone.

He added: “They had a bad situation and now they have had time to change that and move forward.”