Brett Ormerod column: Blackpool's festive fixtures showed Championship's closely-fought nature

The Middlesbrough and Hull City games were tough and went right to the wire, summing up how close the Championship is.

Neil Critchley said after the Hull game that he’d have been really disappointed if they had only come away with a point and I see where he was coming from.

I know the Blackpool keeper, Dan Grimshaw, made three fantastic saves, one in the first half and two more in the second, but I thought Blackpool were the better team by far in the second half and looked comfortable winners until the final few minutes.

It was only really in injury time that they started defending deeper and Hull sensed that.

The keeper did come to Blackpool’s rescue at the end but it would have been criminal if Hull had equalised because Blackpool had really taken the game to them in that second half.

I’m told they were superb at Huddersfield too until the sending off and I thought the performance against Middlesbrough was fantastic.

Blackpool showed real character to come back, played some good football and were in the ascendancy at the end when they equalised.

The Middlesbrough winner was definitely cruel but Blackpool did show a bit of naivety.

Your game management does need to improve at this level to finish games off.

This isn’t League One any more. They have gone up a level into an extremely difficult league.

You have to know when to just knock the ball out of play and regroup. You have to do the ugly side in this league.

However, the win over Hull will have been massive for their confidence.

They got the monkey off their back after those two defeats in four days.

They went on to play three games in seven and credit to Critchley for keeping on putting teams out, even if it meant young lads being named on the bench.

I’m not sure every other club has acted the same way in the Championship.

A lot of games have been called off and it does look to me as though some teams have taken the opportunity to postpone games when they have not had their best 11 available.

Getting those games played could work against Blackpool but they are well positioned in the league and have points on the board.

Other teams may have games in hand but they are only a benefit if you are in form. If you are not playing well and are losing matches, then games in hand usually make things worse.

I think Blackpool are in a good position and they can enjoy the break from the league this weekend while they play their FA Cup tie at Hartlepool.

As someone privileged to have played in an FA Cup final, I’ll always believe it’s the best domestic cup competition in the world.

It would be great for Blackpool to have a good run but it isn’t their priority.

The third-round weekend and everything else in January tends to be overshadowed these days by the silly season that is the transfer window.

It’s the time when players worth £20m are suddenly worth £40m because there are desperate clubs around the country with money to spend.

I know that every club is in the same boat but the short window ramps up the pressure so much – and I really do think it is to the detriment of football.

Players are sold for astronomical sums, with some clubs paying fees and wages at a level the rest can’t compete with.

I don’t think the game can carry on like this, and the sooner the window closes, the better.

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