Manager Neil McDonald and goalkeeper Colin Doyle have given their thoughts following the draw with Fleetwood Town this weekend.
Making the trip to the Highbury Stadium for the game, Blackpool kept a clean sheet but couldn’t find a telling breakthrough at the other end and a scoreless draw returned a point and with two games left now, it wasn’t really enough in reality.
Speaking to the Official Site in his post game press conference, McDonald said he was delighted with what he felt was a far improved showing from the team, but it was about the result and we didn’t get that one we wanted.
‘It was a very tight game, we probably had the best chances of the game and we’re disappointed that we haven’t won. It was a much better performance, we’ve kept a clean sheet but we just couldn’t get the ball over the line.’
With the best opportunity in the game coming via Jim McAlister and then Danny Philliskirk, he was in an offside position.
‘Danny has popped in to try and finish it off and make sure but the linesman has flagged offside. We had a few other chances where the goalkeeper has made two fantastic saves, but it was a great response from the players after Rochdale last week. We’re just disappointed that we haven’t won the game. We stopped them from playing and pressed them at the right times and we got the ball down and played much better football. I thought we were the better team and created the better chances throughout.’
With us two points shy of Fleetwood and getting out of the relegation zone with only two fixtures to go, McDonald knows it’s going to be incredibly tough against Wigan Athletic next weekend.
‘It’s still tight, instead of three games we’ve got to win two games now and then see what happens. It is a little bit out of our hands but we’ll try our best against Wigan to get three points and see where that takes us. It was a very tight game, we probably had the best chances of the game and we’re disappointed that we haven’t won.’
As for Doyle, well he promised the players would keep fighting.
‘It`s going to be difficult, we know that, but we beat them at their place so there`s no reason we can`t beat them at ours. The belief`s still there and at times on Saturday we played some good football. It was disappointing not to get the three points but we`ll keep fighting until the end. We`re still in it. We`ve got two games left so we`ll go out to win them and hope results go our way. We`ve got to keep positive, build on Fleetwood and get the win next week.’
With the offside goal figuring in the game, he went on to say there was a disappointment we didn’t take the extra two points available and make life a lot simpler.
‘We set up to win the game and had the better chances. We matched them up, it took us ten or 15 minutes to get used to it, but when we did we played some decent football. The last 20 minutes of the first-half they were hanging in there, when we were attacking more. We put the ball in the back of the net but the referee said it was offside. We`ll push on and do our best for the club next week, and hopefully get the three points and see what the other results bring.’
