Blackpool CEO Ben Mansford discusses the impact of losing Neil Critchley ahead of the season

Mick McCarthy’s side currently sit 23rd in the table and are four points from safety with eight games remaining.

Mansford admits losing Neil Critchley as manager ahead of the campaign left the Seasiders on the backfoot.

In a recent interview with BBC Radio Lancashire, he said: “We didn’t expect him to leave.

“We had secured him to a new, long-term deal and that deal meant it was only a Premier League club that could take him.

“Sitting here now, no-one expected him to go as a number two, so it was a shock.

“It happened incredibly quickly from our side and then we had to find the best possible candidate in a short period of time, ideally before the start of pre-season.

“That loss of Neil and the person we’ve been building around for two-and-a-half years set us back.

“Michael’s appointment didn’t go the way we hoped it would, but we’re getting behind Mick now who is up for the challenge and he’s working so hard with all the staff and all the players to try and preserve our Championship status.

“Everyone wants to win, everyone wants to stay in this division.

“We acknowledged (with supporters) the other night the season hasn’t gone the way we would have wanted it to.

“But I can assure the supporters Mick, Terry (Connor), the players and everyone at the club, they know it’s important to stay in this division and everyone is working really hard to try and achieve that.”

Mansford admits it is getting harder for promoted teams to cement themselves in higher divisions due to the high level of competition.

“Second season syndrome started its origins in the Premier League but it’s now definitely the case in the Championship and even League One as the gap between the leagues gets better, so it was always going to be a challenge for us,” he added.

“Trying to stay in the division is crucial. It definitely helps from a player trading model and we need that success to enable us to grow our budget to compete with clubs with parachute payments and clubs who are owned by people with billions of pounds in this league.

“It was going to be tough and we tried to make the best decisions to give us the best chance of staying in the league.

“There’s much speculation about what might be going on with clubs around us, but we’ve got to try and take care of ourselves.

“Hopefully we’ve done enough good work and there’s enough good people that we will achieve our aims of staying in the league come May.”

The Championship season resumes after the international break on April 1, with the Seasiders making the trip to Deepdale to face Preston North End (K.O. 12.30pm).

In the previous meeting between the two, Blackpool produced a 4-2 victory at Bloomfield Road, and will be hoping for more of the same.