Manager Neil McDonald and Jim McAlister have given their thoughts following the defeat to Coventry City at the weekend.
Hosting the Sky Blues at Bloomfield Road for the game, Blackpool again came out with a one nil defeat, and the message from the gaffer was simple – keep fighting.
Speaking to the Official Site in his post game press conference, a disappointed McDonald explained.
‘There was not a lot between the teams. They’re fighting for promotion and we’re trying to get out of the bottom and it’s a set-play, which I think was a foul, that has cost us in the end. Colin’s blocked off by Fortune and he then puts it in the back of the net with a free shot. The game certainly wasn’t free-flowing, at this stage of the season it’s not probably going to be that. We have to battle, scrap and fight for every point that we possibly can. We didn’t get that help today with the foul on Colin.’
McDonald went on to thank the fans for their support on the day, as he felt the responded to the teams’ efforts to try and get back on level terms.
‘I’d like to thank the fans because they stayed behind the team and could see the players were trying, but we must try that little bit harder. Nobody has won today to open the gap so it’s a lost opportunity for us. If we’d have got something from the game it would have pushed us closer to everyone else. We’ve got 10 cup finals coming up now and we must stay strong and keep believing in what we’re doing.’
With one positive for McDonald being the performance of Luke Higham who came in for the injured David Ferguson, he added.
‘I thought he played really well. Defensively there were a couple of times when he got taken on but the majority of times he showed composure on the ball and was good with it as well. I’m pleased with his performance.’
He ended by saying that illness had ruled out Mark Yeates and John Herron and he would have to see how they were ahead of Tuesday nights game against Oldham Athletic.
‘That’s no excuse but we are struggling with a bug that’s going round and a fair few of the lads have had it, including a couple that played today. We’ll try and make sure that we can get rid of that as soon as we can so that we can be fresh for Tuesday.’
As for McAlister, he didn’t believe we got the breaks on the day.
‘It felt in the last ten, 15 minutes we had them on the back foot, and didn`t create anything clear-cut. There was a couple of half-chances where we could have nicked a point. They had everyone behind the ball and we were putting the ball forward but couldn`t get that wee break. It was a soft goal. There`s not many times this season when we`ve conceded and come back to take something from the game.’
With other results on the day going for Blackpool, McAlister also went on to say it was a missed opportunity.
‘We see it as a missed opportunity for ourselves, when we see other teams not managing to pick up points. It`s in our own hands, we`ll take it a game at a time. We`ve got a good dressing room of boys and hopefully we can manage to catch teams above.’
