Blackpool’s 3-2 defeat to Reading on the final day of the season meant they missed out on a spot in the League One play-offs despite results elsewhere going in their favour- Seasiders legend Brett Ormerod gives his honest verdict on the campaign as a whole.
They fell short, they wanted at least the play-offs to get back into the Championship at the first time of asking; unfortunately it wasn’t to be. They’ve just been a bit too inconsistent, when they’ve been good at home, they’ve been very good, but their away form is what cost them. On the last day, Northampton scored a late goal, which would’ve been enough if they had done their job. When you’re relying on other people on the final day, you’re in the laps of the gods.
At the end of the day, you can only do what you can do, it’s unimportant what other people do- you have to win your game first, and Blackpool didn’t. It was a challenging season, they had injuries to big players. Jordan Rhodes scored a lot of goals, but then suffered with injury.
It’s disappointing, but Neil Critchley will have a full summer to get the people he wants to get in. There’s always pressure, that’s football, it’s just about how you deal with it.
When Blackpool did perform well, they appeared to be among the best teams in the league, but they lacked consistency and weren’t good enough to qualify for the play-offs. The table is often found around the end of the 46 games in a season.
It was always going to be tough to gain the automatic berths because the league included several excellent teams, like Portsmouth, Derby, and Bolton, but they were more than capable of making the playoffs.
Although it will be a challenging year, teams like Wrexham and Stockport should be able to maintain their current level of success by signing a large number of players.
Neil Critchley’s network is one of his strengths. During his first term, he brought in a lot of young boys, who took some time to settle in but developed into amazing players. He still has the ability to spot talented athletes; he hasn’t lost that. Team pictures are continually changing; you can never expect to see the same ones two years in a row. That’s just the nature of football; people leave.
I always believe that to keep the younger guys interested, you need a decent mix with a few older guys.
The loan players this season have done well. I wouldn’t be surprised if (Karamoko) Dembele ends up with a Championship team. He wasn’t rushed at Blackpool and was managed well. He might want to come back to Bloomfield Road- who knows?
