Blackpool boss: Every team will go through difficult spells

Neil Critchley believes his Blackpool side are currently going through a poor run of results that all teams in the Championship will have to endure at some point.
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Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to Luton Town means the Seasiders have now gone six games without a win in the second tier.

Critchley’s men have only scored twice during that run and have failed to find the net in their last three.

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While Pool have slipped into the bottom half of the table, Critchley isn’t too concerned and expects things to turn their way sooner rather than later.

Neil Critchley saw his Blackpool players beaten at the weekendNeil Critchley saw his Blackpool players beaten at the weekend
Neil Critchley saw his Blackpool players beaten at the weekend
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He said: “Every team in this division will go through a tough period where they don’t win games, or they draw games they should win, or lose games they should draw.

“That’s probably happening to us a little bit at the moment.

“You look at the Birmingham game last week, we had full control of the game and we should have got something from the game – but we didn’t.

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“Against Luton, is that 3-0? Did we deserve to lose the game? Well yes, because they’ve scored three and we haven’t got any.

“That sums up the game, but in terms of general play, we’ve played very well in periods.

“On Monday, if I go through the game and show the players the best clips and the football we played and some of the chances we created, we’d go ‘well, we’re doing alright’.

“Well ‘alright’ is not good enough. We have to put the ball in the back of the net and we have to keep it out at the other end, it’s as simple as that.”

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Blackpool were the better side during the first half on Saturday, but squandered three good chances before the Hatters made the breakthrough.

The game was as good as over when Nathan Jones’ men doubled their lead eight minutes into the second half.

Both of the goals came from deep crosses but, nevertheless, the hosts continued to push.

They had chances to reduce the deficit, but any slim hopes of a comeback were dashed in stoppage time when Luton added a third.

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Critchley said: “You could say it was a perfect away performance from Luton, but we had them pinned right back in their own half, they’ve defended in numbers, and it’s hard to break that down.

“They defended the penalty area very well with lots of bodies but I felt, at 2-0, if we got a goal back we’d get something out of the game.

“We have to try and find a solution to getting back into the game and getting a goal, and sometimes that can be a change in personnel or a change in system.

“At 2-0, I felt we had the momentum and we had some blocked shots, some corners, and we were getting into some great areas often.

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“Our final cross, our final delivery, our final ball or our final pass before the final ball failed and we can only keep working on that.

“I honestly felt if we got a goal back with our momentum and the way they were playing, the game would have changed.

“We didn’t do that and they get the third goal, so it looks like a real beating and a really poor performance – but it wasn’t.

“We’re nearly there. We need to remember we’re going to have tough days in this division against some good teams and we’ve had one on this occasion.”

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