Bowyer: I've done my job to steady ship at Blackpool

Bowyer arrived at Bloomfield Road after the club had suffered a second successive relegation, resulting in the departure of Neil McDonald.

Having also steadied the ship at Blackburn following their relegation from the Premier League, Bowyer says the Seasiders now have to push on and see what they can achieve.

The Pool boss said: “The initial aims were to bring stability and to be competitive on the football pitch. I think we’ve achieved those.

“Now as you go on through the season, you are able to re-align or adjust those expectations and see where you’re at.

“When I spoke to the chairman at the start of the season, he quite clearly put his hands up and said: listen, we need some stability because of what has happened over the last couple of years.

“I would like to think that what I did at Blackburn – bringing some stability and putting a model in place – was one of the attractions in me.

“But it takes time and he’s aware of that. But we’ve already laid the foundations for that stability in my opinion. We’re a competitive football team and that’s the basis you’ve got to go from.

“Then you have to put a stamp on your team and constantly look at improving.”

In an inconsistent campaign, Pool are 14th in League Two but only five points outside the play-off zone ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Exeter.

When asked if he gets the backing from upstairs, Bowyer replied: “Unless you’re trying to tell me something I don’t know of?

“Those are the conversations we’ve had. Everyone is ambitious and we understand that, but sometimes you have to remember that only three clubs get promoted automatically and one through the play- offs.

“So what happens to the other clubs? They have to set expectations and deal with them, and not get carried away.

“The ones with a brain that say they will have a four or five-year plan, it will take this amount of time. There will be ups and downs – road bumps as we call them here – but that’s the way it’s got to go.

“The sooner these owners, chairmen and CEOs wake up and smell the coffee, and look at the good examples the better. Until then they will just continue on a wheel of self-destruction.

“There will be tough times, of course there will be. There will be injuries, suspensions, loss of form, but they have to be accountable far greater than they are.”