Brett Ormerod column: Blackpool aren't giving themselves a chance right now

I think the goal they scored against Crewe at the weekend was their first shot on target. They had Crewe pinned in their own half and had all the possession, which is all well and good but it has to be done with a purpose.

The final third is the important part of the pitch, and it’s where Blackpool are lacking that bit of quality.

Tuesday’s game against Charlton had a bit of everything. When one of your centre-halves gets sent off at 60 seconds against a good team it’s going to make life very, very difficult.

But I thought Blackpool did really well, especially in the first half when they were a man down. They did the horrible side of the game well: they looked solid, stayed patient and concentrated defensively.

Then there was the sending off for Charlton for two yellows, which was completely justified, but that seemed to change the game a little. I don’t think Blackpool worked the keeper enough and that’s been the main issue.

I watched the Crewe game, and for all Blackpool’s dominance they didn’t create enough chances and that’s the big concern.

I’ve not seen keepers pulling off a lot of saves and keeping the opposition in it. If that was the case, you could say Blackpool have been unlucky and it will go for them on another day. But it hasn’t been so and that is the most worrying thing for me.

There’s a lack of clear-cut chances and they just seem to be missing something in the final third, whether it’s that bit of quality or luck.

Blackpool need to take better care of the ball, though. They seem to get into good positions and then a bad pass lets them down or the cross doesn’t beat the first man.

I just hope it does click because they’ve got a good squad, with some talented lads, but five defeats in seven is a major concern.

It’s still early doors and I remember playing under Steve McMahon, when we still managed to get promoted despite a terrible start. Once we got going we were all right.

I believe this team has enough quality to put some results together but they have to start winning soon.

As for James Husband’s red card, it was the right decision. He was the last man, so he had to go.

But it was just a simple ball down the middle, nothing out of the ordinary. You’d expect your centre-halves to read that and drop off.

They even got a warning two seconds into the game, when their lad was offside. Ben Watson, or Prince Harry as I call him, played a good ball and both centre-halves got caught but thankfully it was ruled offside.

Only 30 seconds later there’s a ball played down the middle and Omar Bogle gets the wrong side of Husband. You just can’t let that happen. If it happened at schoolboy level you’d be angry.

It was a lack of concentration, not really a lack of discipline, even if it’s his second red card of the season. It’s not like he’s going around punching people.

When someone has fallen asleep and let his man run off him, it’s a lack of concentration and communication.

But they did well with 10 men for the rest of the half. Blackpool really defended well and had a good shape. They had no option but to concentrate because Charlton were moving the ball well.

They opened up a bit more when Charlton went down to 10 men but their goal was quality. Alfie Doughty, who I thought was the best player on the pitch, headed it back across goal and the substitute Chuks Aneke got across his man and headed it home.

Lee Bowyer made a couple of changes and they both made an impact, which is something Blackpool’s subs haven’t done this season.

Individual errors are costing Blackpool at the moment but they need to be creating more chances and getting more people into the box when they get into these good positions.

The players need to be positive, have shots and take the game to the opposition. But when they went 1-0 down late on, they never looked like getting back into the game. It was going to take a penalty or a bit of luck. You never got that feeling they could equalise.

You’ve really got to take it one game at a time now and look to MK Dons, who are just one position above Blackpool in the bottom four.

Blackpool won’t want to be down there for too long. They will be wanting to start looking up the table but for that you need to have consistency.