Hard to see a way back for Blackpool boss Michael Appleton as fans turn against him at Wigan Athletic

It’s not like it was a minority that joined in with the “you’re getting sacked in the morning” chants either, it was virtually the entirety of the away end.

Despite the backlash that headed Michael Appleton’s way after Curtis Tilt’s late winner, Blackpool’s under-pressure head coach still went over to the 4,000 or so Seasiders to applaud and show his appreciation.

He will have left the pitch knowing, in no uncertain terms, what his supporters think of him, because it wasn’t pretty.

I highly doubt the reaction will have surprised him, he’s a realistic fella who knew he wasn’t exactly made to feel welcome to begin with on his return to Bloomfield Road. He’s faced an uphill battle from the start.

But can he recover from this? It’s hard to say. Four straight defeats and sitting in the bottom three with the fans on your back isn’t a good place to be in though heading into the World Cup break, that’s for certain.

A bad defeat

As Appleton trudged his way off the pitch at the DW Stadium, chief executive Ben Mansford remained glued to his seat in the directors’ box, sitting motionless and stony-faced for a good 30 seconds or so.

He’ll have known the significance of this result, losing to a side who were second bottom before kick-off, are managerless and had only won one home game in their last 10.

What might work in Appleton’s favour is that, as far as I’m aware, owner Simon Sadler wasn’t in attendance. Board member Brett Gerrity was though.

This might not be a particularly popular statement I’m about to make given Blackpool’s fans are baying for blood at this moment in time, but I still hold a degree of sympathy for Appleton.

He’s been dealt a rough hand in terms of summer recruitment, because he clearly doesn’t have the tools at his disposal, injuries, illness and suspensions or not.

But that’s not to say he should escape criticism or scrutiny, because he shouldn’t and he clearly won’t anyway.

Pointing the finger

His insistence of keeping Chris Maxwell in net over Dan Grimshaw continues to bemuse.

Appleton feels his current number one has performed well since he’s come into the team and not made many mistakes.

But by my reckoning, Maxwell has been responsible for more goals in recent weeks than Grimshaw ever was before he was harshly dropped, while the latter is the better all-round keeper anyway, so it’s hard to make much sense of that one.

Is it the only problem? Not by any stretch and I don’t want a situation where individual players are being scapegoated, because the problems go far beyond that.

Given they played for 73 minutes with 10 men, Blackpool’s general performance levels weren’t bad against Wigan. But how many times have we said that this season? It becomes meaningless making such statements when the defeats continue to come (that’s now nine in 15 games).

Time to worry?

The heavy booing and the fans’ backlash against Appleton goes beyond this one game, it’s a worrying trend that shows no sign of dissipating.

For a while now it’s felt like everything is going wrong for the Seasiders. It just seems to be one of those seasons.

Marvin Ekpiteta being sent off after just 17 minutes after Blackpool had made a promising start to the game is a leading example of that.

The defender can have no real complaints though, he showed hesitancy in the first place in his failure to deal with Kenny Dougall’s admittedly weak header back before bringing Charlie Wyke down as the last man.

Some will argue there were one or two players either side who could have made it back in time to cover, but the reality is Wyke would have been clear through on goal had he not been brought down, so it’s hard to point the fingers at the referee on this occasion.

Despite the setback, the visitors – shooting towards the packed out away end during the first-half – responded well and remained on the front foot despite their one-man disadvantage.

They got their rewards and in some fashion too as Gary Madine lashed home a thunderous effort after chesting the ball down inside the Wigan box.

But the Latics, who were another deeply unimpressive outfit despite their three points, rallied somewhat in the second-half, just enough to snatch the win late on.

James McClean, who was predictably booed by the away contingent, got his revenge when he somehow managed to trickle a dreadful corner into the far corner of Maxwell’s net after his delivery missed everyone in the crowded box.

After a period of pressure, Blackpool settled themselves though and looked largely comfortable in their out-of-possession shape.

But as has been the case for a while now, they were susceptible to yet another ball in from a wide position two minutes from time as Curtis Tilt came back to haunt his former side by getting across Kenny Dougall to glance a header home.

Why leave it so late?

It wasn’t just the concession of a late goal that angered the away supporters so much, it was Appleton’s bizarre decision to send on CJ Hamilton – his only change of the game – in the 89th minute.

When already depleted by injuries, it made no sense to keep all 10 on the pitch for virtually the whole game when it was clear fresh legs were required.

Hamilton had been stripped and ready to come on 15 minutes before he eventually entered the field of play, but by then it was too little, too late.

Decisions like that from Appleton certainly won’t help his cause. He’s in for a long four weeks or so now, assuming he’s still here come the end of it.