Manager Neil McDonald has described Blackpool’s performance against Rochdale at the weekend as the poorest he’s seen since joining the club, calling it horrible.
Travelling to Spotland Stadium for the game with Blackpool desperately needing to get back to winning ways once more to have hopes of avoiding another relegation – one that now again looks increasingly likely – the trip home was on the back of a three nil defeat where many would argue we were lucky the hosts didn’t score more.
Speaking to the Official Site in his post game press conference, a disappointed manager explained.
‘It was a poor second-half performance that’s cost us dearly. We competed first-half, got in behind a couple of times and had a couple of efforts but then conceded a silly goal right on half-time to give us an uphill battle and a hill that we certainly couldn’t climb. The second goal obviously killed us off, so that’s two set-plays that were very disappointing. The reaction of the players was poor today and we’re obviously very worried that we’ve lost another game at an important part of the season. We’re certainly not relegated yet and we’ve got three games to put it right.’
With plenty questioning the starting line up given he kept faith with the group that went down to Colchester as well, he was asked that question following the game.
And he admitted he was now contemplating changes to get a reaction.
‘I trusted the players after losing last week and they haven’t performed. They’ve let me down badly today. We need to stand up and be counted and we certainly need a reaction next week against Fleetwood, that’s for sure. There’s three games left and we have to win as many of them as we possibly can to get ourselves out of the mire that we’ve put ourselves in.’
With Keith Hill and the statistics (one shot on target) implying a parking of the proverbial bus, he dismissed that suggestion but plenty will have their own thoughts.
‘No, the plan wasn`t to sit and frustrate. Did it look as though it was? We got in behind them a couple of times. We didn`t sit back and soak up pressure. They scored from a free-kick, which gave them confidence. We had a couple of good chances and had to take them.’
