Opinion: It wasn't pretty, but Blackpool live to fight another day thanks to Wigan win

At times it wasn’t a million miles away from that, because this was far from pretty. But the only thing that matters is that Blackpool won and, as a consequence, their survival hopes remain intact.

They remain slim, let’s not get carried away, but if Stephen Dobbie’s side can follow this up with another win at Bloomfield Road on Tuesday night then things could get very, very spicy indeed.

That will be a different affair entirely though because West Brom, their next opponents, are a far superior side to Wigan who were absolutely abject.

I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed a side, regardless of division, pose such a lack of threat in front of goal.

Despite enjoying 63 per cent of possession, the Latics – who unsurprisingly haven’t scored more than one goal in a game since November – asked no questions of the returning Dan Grimshaw whatsoever.

Getting the job done

We shouldn’t take any credit away from Blackpool though, because they remained organised and well-drilled throughout.

Given the seriousness of their current plight, and off the back of losing four on the spin, chances were if Blackpool were to get back to winning ways it wasn’t going to be pretty. It was always going to be a case of slugging it out.

The ultimately dull affair promised so much when Jerry Yates, back from injury, dispatched a clinically-taken first-time effort in off the post after just two minutes having raced onto Keshi Anderson’s clever through-ball.

With Dobbie selecting a crowd-pleasing attacking line-up, something we’ve all been crying out for since January, the hope was Blackpool would pounce on their electric start and put Wigan to the sword.

But what instead transpired was Wigan passing the ball from side-to-side and, every now and then, backwards while the Seasiders comfortably remained in their shape and kept them at arm’s length.

If there’s one criticism of their display, the hosts could have offered more going forwards, especially on the counter. But as previously mentioned, this was all about grinding out three points and they managed to do exactly that, much to the delight of the home faithful who serenaded Dobbie while he watched on intently from the dugout.

Dobbie’s delight

The club’s interim boss was rightfully delighted at the full-time whistle, as he geed up the North Stand in celebration of his first win. As a former player with a history of success at Bloomfield Road, just speaking to him in his interviews you can see how much this means to him.

The 40-year-old made some big calls for this game, which we all knew was must win. Yates was a major doubt and, in all likelihood, wasn’t 100 per cent fit to start having taken part in a fitness test on the morning of the game.

Dobbie himself admitted it was a gamble to throw him in but, with no recognised number nines available, it was a gamble he had to take given this really was a case of Blackpool’s last chance saloon.

What would be the point of saving Yates for Tuesday night, for example? The season could have been over by that point. It was now or never.

Yates repaid that faith with the match-winning moment while the player that created the opening for him, Anderson, produced a Man of the Match performance.

Dobbie went all out with his team selection, throwing virtually all of his attacking options onto the pitch with Josh Bowler, Ian Poveda and Morgan Rogers playing behind Yates, who led the line brilliantly.

In midfield, Lewis Fiorini and Anderson were tasked with building play up. The concern was that Blackpool lacked a physical and defensively-minded presence in the middle of the park and they may well require that in midweek, but on this occasion Dobbie’s gamble paid off.

A much needed clean sheet

He also made a big call at the other end of the pitch, opting to drop Chris Maxwell, ending the goalkeeper’s 18-game run as Blackpool’s number one.

The Seasiders had shipped in 13 goals in their last four outings prior to this encounter, so something had to change.

Grimshaw, making his first start of 2023, repaid the faith by keeping a clean sheet, albeit in truth he wasn’t given a great deal to do.

That’s because the two men in front of him, Curtis Nelson and Jordan Thorniley, performed resolutely to keep a powder puff Wigan side at bay.

While the first-half wasn’t exactly a feast of chances, at least there was some action to speak of. The second-half, by comparison, was a complete non-event.

That suited the Seasiders just find but there was plenty of nerve-jangling during the nine minutes of stoppage-time.

Wigan, somewhat bizarrely, suddenly realised they were allowed to get the ball into the Blackpool box and weren’t limited to ineffectual passes. Once they did that, they began to cause one or two late scares, but fortunately Dobbie’s men were able to hang on.

Was it particularly convincing? Not really. At this stage of the season does it really matter? Nope. The Seasiders can’t sniff their noses up at any win, however it comes.

Blackpool proved there’s still life in the old dog yet. What this does do is inject some belief and positivity at a season-defining point of the campaign. Capitalise on that and you just never know.