'Sore': Stephen Dobbie reacts to Blackpool's relegation following their defeat to Millwall

The result, in many ways, summed up Blackpool’s season. There was no shortage of effort from the players but they just weren’t good enough to get over the line once again.

While 23rd place Blackpool are still three points adrift of safety, they’re now unable to catch both Reading and Huddersfield Town given they play one another on the final weekend.

“First and foremost I’m hurting like everybody else is because everybody knows what this club means to me,” Dobbie said.

“I thought we didn’t play the way we had been playing in the first-half. Their three midfielders dominated the ball and we didn’t really pick up second balls.

“That happens sometimes. It’s like when we played Wigan when three minutes in we go 1-0 up.

“You’ve just got to readjust. You get the ball out of the net, you keep your chin up and you don’t look down at the floor. You go again.

“I can’t fault the lads though, their effort was fantastic. Even when we went a goal down it was our fans I could hear, so they were unbelievable again as they have been in all the games I’ve taken charge of. The lads gave everything, so I can’t fault the effort.

“I let the lads know what was expected of them and we came out of the traps in the second-half.

“From our point of view, their second goal is very poor but we get back in it and we were the ones trying to go for it. But they get the penalty at the end (and that kills it).

“I think we lost a throw-in in their half and they carved us open right the way through the middle of us, so we’ll need to take a look at that and see where we went from. That’s the learning aspect to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“I don’t know whether we just lost our way a little bit, but we started to grow into the game again and Jez puts away his penalty. We get two or three corners in a row and the half-time whistle probably comes at the wrong time for us.”