'A bumpy road' - Blackpool legend issues honest assessment of Bloomfield Road highs and lows
Brett Ormerod has shared his views on Blackpool’s 2025/26 League One campaign.
Blackpool legend Brett Ormerod has applauded Ian Evatt and his staff for restoring confidence at Bloomfield Road following a concerning low point.
Despite heading into the 2025/26 League One campaign with the ambition of battling for promotion, the Seasiders ultimately found themselves fighting relegation.
By mid-March things were looking pretty bleak, before an impressive run of 22 points from their final nine games secured a comfortable 13th place finish for the Fylde Coast outfit - 11 points clear of the bottom four.
Ormerod, who represented Blackpool twice during his playing career, was impressed by the way the current squad were able to pull themselves together.
“I don’t know what all of the fuss was about - it was comfortable in the end,” he joked.
“The Doncaster game was particularly low, where I thought: ‘This will take a monumental effort to get us out of it.’
“We didn’t play very well, it was a scrappy game, and a mistake cost us - it felt like a pinnacle thing, but it was also the introduction of Steve Thompson coming in, he probably gave it a different angle. Sometimes a fresh point of view can make all of the difference.
“The manager (Ian Evatt) showed his qualities in keeping the lads focussed and turning it around. We knew they were capable of doing it because they’d been on a great run until Port Vale away at the start of the new year.
“When you’re down there all season, you’re getting beat, and every time you put your head over the parapet you get slapped again; it’s very hard to play the football that you want to play.
“Confidence is a massive thing. Looking back at my career, the times when I dipped were when I was really low on it. It’s a time when you’ve got to dig deep and believe in yourself.
“It’s about getting the message across to the players that they’re more than capable of doing it, but it’s hard when results aren’t going their way.
“The manager and his staff need to be commended because in difficult circumstances they turned it around.”
Blackpool legend shares praise for former teammate
Ormerod was a teammate of Evatt’s under Ian Holloway, with the pair winning the 2010 Championship play-offs together before representing Blackpool in the Premier League.
The retired forward also linked up with his ex-Seasiders colleague at Bolton Wanderers in 2024, taking on the role of assistant kit man at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
Evatt’s managerial career started with a National League title with Barrow, before earning promotion from League Two and winning the EFL Trophy during his four-and-half years with the Trotters; with the most recent campaign being the first relegation battle he’s been involved in as a coach.
“For Evo, it was a new situation for him,” Ormerod added.
“He’s coming into a team that was struggling at the bottom of the league, but if you look at his record as a manager, he’s always been pushing for promotion.
“I think he’s learnt a lot about himself in that situation. He dealt with it fantastically well to get rid of that outside noise in order to focus on what the group needed.
“It was a bumpy road at times, but that’s football. When you’ve been struggling with confidence all season, it’s hard to keep that focus.
“When you put it all together, it shows the remarkable job that he and the players have done.
“It was one of them eventually where you didn’t want the season to end, if they had started off like that then you would’ve been looking at promotion.
“They’ve got players who have stood up to be counted and have fought for the cause - they are massive things. It stands you in good stead and gives you good experience.
“There’s a lot of young lads in that squad. It’s hard to go out in front of fans who are booing if things aren’t going well.
“I remember Brucey’s (Steve Bruce) last game (against Wimbledon) where the crowd had turned and I’d never seen Blackpool play so poorly. You could see that the lads had totally lost confidence.
“It was always going to take a monumental effort for anyone to come in and turn that around. Sometimes you get an immediate bounce, but if you’ve got long standing issues it takes time.
“Blackpool weren’t the only ones - there were about seven teams fighting for their lives, and no one’s going to lay down.
“It’s a tough game mentally and it can take its toll, but eventually the form they hit was fantastic to watch.”
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