Opinion: Blackpool must learn from their mistakes after relegation is confirmed with Millwall defeat

After two years in the Championship, the Seasiders will return to third tier football next season and they only have themselves to blame.

And yet, it’s impossible to attach any blame to the second interim boss, third overall, of a miserable season and it’s difficult to be too critical of the players either.

Against Millwall on Friday night, and as they have done all season really, they gave it everything they had. They took a promotion-chasing side to the wire and pushed them all the way. In terms of the very basics we come to expect, heart, desire, determination and so on, it was all there. Very rarely hasn’t it been there this year.

But unfortunately heart and desire can only get you so far and ultimately the Seasiders fell short once again, just as they’ve done in 23 other games this season.

Costly mistakes

The inquest now begins in earnest but in truth, the reasons behind Blackpool’s alarming decline this season are fairly simple: poor managerial appointments and a disastrous summer of recruitment.

Yes, injuries, suspensions and refereeing decisions have played their part but they’re always going to be part and parcel of the game. They’re not the reason why Blackpool have lost three more games than any other side and shipped the most goals.

Once Neil Critchley abruptly left, Blackpool have been playing catch up ever since, but – 10 months on – they’ve still not managed it.

The Championship is a brutal division, there can be no getting away from it. Critchley always said Blackpool had to be at their best in all facets just to be able to compete and keep their head above water. Well they’ve well and truly sunk this season but it’s away from the pitch, rather than on it, where the blame lies.

Michael Appleton was never the right man for the job. The club were warned as such before they formally announced his return and any proclamations to the contrary are merely bluster.

He should have gone after the Wigan game before the World Cup break, when the new man at the helm would have had the time to implement his ideas, plan ahead for the January window and, most importantly of all, get some wins on the board.

Mick McCarthy was a logical short-term appointment in the sense he’s a firefighter, a man that knows the game inside out and has been in this position before and come out the other side. But this squad of players, packed full of smaller, more technical minded players, was the complete antithesis to McCarthy-ball. Because of that, it was doomed to fail from the start.

Had Stephen Dobbie come in before the Cardiff game, rather than after it, who knows, perhaps Blackpool would still be in with a shout heading into the final day.

Going down with a fight

Unfortunately that’s not proven to be the case, but we all wanted Blackpool to go down with a fight, didn’t we? Under Dobbie we got that and more.

Once again the Seasiders gave it blood and thunder against Gary Rowett’s men. With a draw doing neither side any good, this was always going to be a frantic, end-to-end affair and Blackpool more than played their part.

But in truth, you always felt the visitors had the upper hand. They were far superior for the opening half an hour, where they outfought and outplayed the bamboozled hosts.

But once Dobbie’s men got back into it via a slice of good fortune, Jerry Yates dispatching a penalty after CJ Hamilton had gone to ground rather easily in the box, they capitalised on the shift in momentum and piled on swathes of pressure on the Millwall goal.

In one sense, the half-time whistle came at an awful time for the Seasiders because had the half had been extended another five or 10 minutes, chances are they would have edged ahead.

As it was, the interval stunted their progress and it was Millwall who retook the lead shortly into the second-half, only to be pegged back by a moment of brilliance from Lewis Fiorini.

But a second penalty awarding of the night, this one far more nailed on than the first, presented the Lions with the opportunity to put the game to bed and that’s exactly what Zian Flemming did, converting from 12 yards to boost his side’s promotion hopes in the process.

Mixed feelings

As for Blackpool, there was a surreal sense of pride at the final whistle as the players were clapped off the field. It wasn’t the usual reception teams get when relegation is confirmed.

That’s because the players, led by a man who gets the club and what the fans demand, have done what we’ve been asking for all season: give it a proper go and don’t, for the love of god, go down with a whimper.

Do the bare minimum for this loyal band of fans and they’ll back you to the hilt, as they did once again here in front of the Sky Sports cameras. On all three occasions Millwall went ahead, it was the home faithful you could hear singing. The supporters played their part and some.

Now what they want to see this summer is some decisive leadership from those at the top, with decisions being based on logic and not emotion.

There’s bound to be a big rebuild in terms of summer recruitment but that might not be a terrible thing. But there’s still the nucleus of a decent squad there, especially at League One level. That needs to be built upon now with smart decision-making.

Plenty of mistakes have been made this season, so now is the time to learn from them.