Blackpool legend Brett Ormerod on relegation scrap, Burnley derby and injury crisis

Time is ticking and matches are running out. The fans have just got to give the players as much support as possible and hopefully they can do something, but they need to start winning sooner rather than later.

It’s a bit of a cliche, but their home form is going to be massive. They’re unbeaten in their last five at Bloomfield Road which they need to build on. That’s the one thing that everyone can jump on.

If they can win their home games and start nicking points away from home, pick up the odd draw here and there, then who knows?

The difficult thing is some of the teams around them have started to pick up. Cardiff have won the odd game, Wigan have improved. Blackpool need to start winning just to keep up pace at this moment in time to give themselves the best chance.

Unfortunately it doesn’t get any easier, because it’s the league leaders Burnley up next.

They had a good performance against them earlier in the season where they came back from 3-1 down, but the way Burnley are at the moment it’s as tough a game as you could ask for in the Championship.

How do Blackpool go about it? I honestly don’t know. You can get at Burnley, you can cause them problems from set-pieces so perhaps that’s something for Mick McCarthy to look at.

But if you go toe-to-toe with them and try and out-pass them, chances are you’ll come off second best so I don’t expect Blackpool to take that approach.

They’re in poor form as we know and struggling and Burnley are flying, but it’s a derby game and I just hope Blackpool can do to them what they did back in August when they closed them down and didn’t give them any space to play out from the back.

But this is a different Burnley team to what they faced earlier in the season, because they were just getting to terms with Vincent Kompany. Now they’ve mastered how he wants to play, so it’s going to be one really tough game.

You’ve got to be optimistic though. Blackpool have got to put their recent disappointment to one side and hopefully they can get something from it.

Injuries, hamstring in particular, have really cropped up again in recent weeks which is certainly hampering the Seasiders.

It’s all down to the competitiveness of the league and what with them having that long break for the World Cup, it’s meant games have come thick and fast on their return.

We all know the intensity of the Championship is at such a level that if you’re playing two or three games a week constantly then you’re going to get injuries. It’s hard to see how you don’t.

Most teams have picked up injuries, but not everyone is in the position of a Burnley, for example, who are able to chop and change and bring in the same level of quality from off the bench.

It’s the bigger teams with the bigger squads who are able to cope better. The smaller teams are getting big injuries to key players which is having a major impact on them.