Why Blackpool boss Neil Critchley had Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony on high alert ahead of Bloomfield Road visit

Darragh MacAnthony has revealed he was concerned by Neil Critchley’s head-to-head record with Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson ahead of last Saturday’s League One meeting at Bloomfield Road.

The Posh chairman and co-owner even quipped he was prepared to let Ferguson step away from preparations for the game because of his track record against the Blackpool manager.

Of their four meetings prior to last Saturday’s fixture, Critchley had come out on top on three occasions, with the Seasiders recording a double over Peterborough the last time they met in League One during the 2020-21 season.

A 3-1 Championship victory for Blackpool followed in December 2021 when both teams were in the second tier, with Ferguson recording his then solitary victory over the former Liverpool Academy coach in May 2022.

It’s a record that led MacAnthony to joke that Critchley was Ferguson’s managerial ‘nemesis’

So the Irishman was understandably overjoyed when Posh ran out 4-2 winners last weekend to boost their own promotion hopes and deal a blow to the Seasiders’ ambitions.

Speaking on the latest episode of his The Hard Truth Podcast, MacAnthoy said: ‘Saturday was a massive one, because I wound the gaffer up Tuesday night.

‘I actually said to him, “Look, there’s no point in you taking the game, you should let Scarffy (assistant manager Kieran Scarff) take the game because the Blackpool manager has got your number from previous games.

‘He was like, “What?” So when I went down on Thursday and saw him and his staff, I was like "Listen, your nemesis, have you figured out how to beat him yet? Because every time I’ve seen you play against his team, the last time we were in League One, they did the double over us”. So I was just like, sticking it in!’

Posh’s victory allowed them to move up to fourth in the table, while the Seasiders slipped out of the play-off positions.

Despite that, MacAnthony believes Blackpool will be there or thereabouts in the promotion race come the end of the season.

He added: ’They (Blackpool) are one of the best teams in League One, they’ve an unbelievable record there (at Bloomfield Road).

'Forget the fact they scored late goals and we were under pressure, we were 3-0 up against 10 men and all of that. Forget that. Look at the result itself - not many teams are going to go to Blackpool and A. Play them off the pitch, like we did for an hour. B. Score four goals and C. Walk out with three points.

‘It’s not going to happen for a lot of teams, that’s how good they are.

‘They’re going to be up there, a really good team. We went there and I loved it. I loved the performance, I loved the first half. We missed a penalty but we were very good.'