'An absolute scrap until the end': New boss Mick McCarthy rates Blackpool’s survival chances

The 63-year-old arrives at Bloomfield Road tasked with keeping the Seasiders in the Championship at any cost.

Pool currently sit 23rd, three points adrift of safety after a 10-game winless run saw Michael Appleton lose his job.

McCarthy, who spoke to the press for the first time this afternoon following his appointment late last week, has a realistic and pragmatic view of Blackpool’s survival chances.

When asked to assess the current situation and Blackpool’s relegation rivals, the veteran boss said: “I’m not a gambler, I don’t look at it with that frame of mind. I look at it like we’ve got to finish one point above three other teams or one goal above three other teams,” he said.

“People might say that’s a negative way of looking at it, but we’ve got to stay in the league, that’s the long and short of it.

“At this moment in time, it’s been 44 points over the last two years that’s gone down. Three years ago, it was almost 50 I think. One year we were at Ipswich it was over 50-something and we ended up with 60. I don’t see it being that.

“How do I see it? I see it as picking the games off week by week. We’ve got Middlesbrough up first in the league and we’ve got to try and get something there.

“Does it look like we’re going to soar out of trouble? Probably not. Very rarely teams in this position do. West Brom have, of course, but with the players they’ve got they were looking at getting promoted before the season got underway.

“I have to be careful, but we might be there for a while in the bottom three. It’s about getting out at the end of it.

“I’ve seen it happen, you win two games and the teams above you win two games as well. You think ‘god above’.

“At Ipswich we went to Millwall and got a point. I said to TC (assistant Terry Connor), ‘that’s a great point that, that could keep us up’, but everyone around us had won. But in our next game we beat Leicester, who got promoted that year, and that was the result that kept us up, so you never know.

“You have a couple of good results and all of a sudden you’re out of the bottom three, everyone relaxes and then three games later you’re back in the bottom three.

“I always think it’s the sides that are fourth bottom, fifth bottom, sixth bottom that are s*****ng themselves, so for us it’s just an absolute scrap until the end to get out and the lads will be up for it.

“There’s a good atmosphere, we’ve got good characters and they’re prepared to work hard.”

McCarthy takes charge of the Seasiders for the first time next weekend when they take on Southampton in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

The former Ipswich Town boss was due to be in the dugout on Saturday before the league clash against Huddersfield Town was postponed due to a frozen pitch.