Blackpool's 2023/24 season is in danger of faltering out after they were thrashed by Peterborough United in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.
The Posh inflicted a 3-0 defeat on the Seasiders at Bloomfield Road as they booked their place at Wembley for the final in April. Malik Mothersille opened the scoring and then Harrison Burrows scored twice in the final ten minutes to send Darren Ferguson's side through to the final. A crowd of 6,044 came with just under 500 Peterborough fans making the trip and home supporters prior to kick-off would have been excited by the potential of seeing their team at Wembley in April.
Blackpool now have only League One to focus on and thankfully they beat Peterborough in the league last week. The gap between them is now down to six but Peterborough do have a game in hand. The priority this season will have been to get promoted at the first attempt and Neil Critchley knows that having been backed well in the summer and in January.
Portsmouth are the runaway leaders of the division and there is 22-points between them and Blackpool so we can write off the title. Derby County are in second ahead of Bolton Wanderers on the virtue of goal difference so you can perhaps admit that automatic promotion isn't really a possibility either. It leaves us with Blackool likely having to go through the play-offs to get promoted which is what they did under Neil Critchley in 2021.
Here, we take a look at the past 10 seasons to see what points tally was needed to finish from between fourth to sixth, and what the gap was with the side in seventh who missed out on the end of season showpiece. Take a look below to find out whether Critchley's men are on pace to secure a spot back in the second tier of English football.