No way are Blackpool safe yet says boss Bowyer

Don’t miss the latest football news and gossip from leagues in England, Scotland and Europe with footballwire.co.ukThe Seasiders might have reached the 50-point mark but manager Gary Bowyer insists his Blackpool side haven’t achieved anything yet.

Pool climbed up to 15th in the table with Saturday’s 5-0 thrashing of Bradford City, leaving them on the cusp of confirming League One status for next season.

It means the Seasiders are now eight points clear of the drop zone with five to play, although a number of sides around them still have games in hand.

Blackpool now move swiftly on from Saturday’s rout to face their second home game in four days as they welcome relegation-threatened Northampton Town to Bloomfield Road tonight.

The Cobblers are currently second-bottom and three points from safety, having sacked manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink last week.

Blackpool know another win should all but confirm safety.

But when asked if his team are safe yet, Bowyer said: “No chance.

“There are five games left, 15 points still to play for and I want to get as many of them as we possibly can.

“We can pat ourselves on the back at the end of the season if we achieve what I want us to achieve.

“Against Northampton it’s all about us again. We spoke before the Bradford game about it being the start of an exciting week. We’ve now got to build on this win.

“We can’t be coming out after Tuesday’s game and saying, ‘We were off it’. There’s no way that’s happening.”

Saturday’s win against the Bantams was the perfect tonic after Blackpool’s back-to-back defeats over the Easter period.

The Seasiders were well under par in both of their 2-1 losses to Doncaster Rovers and Oldham Athletic respectively.

Bowyer admits some harsh words were said in the lead up to Saturday’s game, and it certainly seemed to have paid off.

He added: “We had a harsh meeting on Thursday to speak about the standards we have set and how it was time to focus and get back to running hard and playing with an intensity. We showed that against Bradford.

“Our boys deserve so much credit for their response.

“That’s what we spoke about on Thursday and Friday – we demanded a response from them.

“It wasn’t good enough over the Easter period.

“The intensity was there straight away. We’ve known all season we’re capable of producing performances like that, but we haven’t been ruthless enough in front of goal.

“But against Bradford we were. We were very, very clinical. It was just a complete performance from the whole team.

“We’ve got to go again now”