'A really difficult day': Mick McCarthy on Blackpool's derby defeat to PNE & half-time changes

The Seasiders’ survival chances have been left hanging by a thread following a 3-1 defeat at Deepdale.

Despite starting fairly well, McCarthy’s side soon crumbled once the first goal went in and they never looked like recovering.

It resulted in angry scenes in the away end at full-time as the supporters who had stayed behind vented their frustrations with the players.

McCarthy admits there were no excuses for his side’s pitiful display as PNE avenged their derby defeat at Bloomfield Road for the second season running.

“I’m not going to stand here and look for positives from a 3-1 defeat. It was a really difficult day,” McCarthy said.

“I thought they started better, we then have a couple of half chances which we could have done better with.

“But we don’t stop a quick free-kick, we don’t stop a cross, we don’t really deal with the cross when it comes in particularly well but when he finishes it it’s emphatic. So emphatic it got the crowd up as well.

“The free-kick for the second was a bit soft, but we’ve got to block it. We turned and it went through the wall. You’ve got to head that.

“We’re 2-0 down and they’re playing well at that point, so it became really difficult for the team.

“I had to change it at half-time. I’m not going to keep doing the same things, that’s stupid and I thought we might create a few more chances, but we lose the ball and it ends up in the back of our net for the third. That really kills it completely.”

Trailing 2-0 at half-time, McCarthy made three changes at the break, introducing Charlie Patino, Ian Poveda and Josh Bowler into the fray.

The trio made a positive impact on the game, but with Preston adding a third shortly into the second-half the game was already done and dusted by that point.

Addressing his decision not to start the likes of Poveda and Bowler, McCarthy said: “Sometimes when the third goal goes in you end up passing it around and passing it a lot better. There’s no doubt they’re more technical players but it looks a bit like that.

“We created a few chances, James Husband put in a couple of great crosses from the left but we’ve not scored one. If we do it, it just changes things, like their first does, because it gets the fans up.

“When we were five up against QPR they had all the ball, they were passing it for fun but they weren’t going anywhere. It does look like that, but we did create some chances. But unless we take them…

“Our leading goalscorer has 12, somebody else has got three and the next has two, so it’s a real problem for us: putting the ball in the net.

“It doesn’t help we’ve got strikers who are injured and are out for the rest of the season.”