'Have to be honest' - Ian Evatt sets Blackpool clear target following Barnsley defeat
Blackpool suffered a 2-1 defeat away to Barnsley.
Ian Evatt states it’s crucial for Blackpool to cut out stupid mistakes if they want to avoid being dragged into a relegation battle.
The Seasiders were on the end of a 2-1 defeat to Barnsley at Oakwell on Saturday, with the Tyke’s first goal coming from a Bailey Peacock-Farrell and the second coming on the break during second half stoppage time.
Results elsewhere mean Blackpool now sit just one place above League One’s bottom four ahead of their meeting with Northampton Town next weekend.
Prior to their trip to South Yorkshire, the Fylde Coast outfit had already been defeated by both Port Vale and Bradford City at the start of 2026, and find themselves in the midst of another injury crisis.
When asked about a potential points target to avoid a battle at the bottom, Evatt said: “We have to get to 50 as quickly as we can, there’s no two ways about that. We have to own where we are, but I’m not worried if we get that performance level, we just need to cut out these stupid mistakes that we are giving to the opposition.
“In the 43rd minute at Port Vale everyone was in a good place, but since then we’ve lost some momentum. Things have gone against us and it’s spiralled in terms of injury. It all hurts, and it hurts even more when we perform like we did today and should’ve won the game.
“Every game is huge. We have to be full tilt every single day, we can’t waste a minute - we have to keep getting better and striving for improvement. It’s no coincidence between the correlation of results and healthy players.
“These things happen in football and I have to resolve it. It’s tough at the moment, but if we do a lot of the things we did today, then we’ll be okay.”
Take matters into our own hands
When Evatt took over as Blackpool boss in October, the club was sat in the bottom four following a poor start to the season under Steve Bruce.
An impressive run of form throughout December saw the Seasiders lifted up the table, before this latest slump.
“In some ways I feel like we’re back in and around where we don’t want to be when we worked hard to get out of that,” the head coach added.
“It’s something we have to own and accept. Take the ego out of it, and make sure we fight tooth and nail to get out of it. I don’t think anyone wants to believe we’ll be down there at the end of the season, but it’s that ‘what if.’
“We have to take matters into our own hands and sort it out, and I’m confident we can.
“It’s been hard since Port Vale because we felt that huge injustice, but there’s parts of it all. This week has been incredibly difficult because Albie (Morgan) and Danny (Imray) are two of our best players, and everyone knows that.
“The players know that, so it’s a huge blow to them. Today we performed well for large parts, but the bit we have to own is how we lost it, with the two goals being our own doing.
“We speak about it because there’s no point not, we have to be honest and we have to be clear. There has to be clarity and accountability, we just have to do it in the right way. There’s no point in shouting and screaming as it won’t get us anywhere; we have to step up to the plate.
“When things go against you in football, it snowballs. We have to respond, and I guarantee we’ll give everything to make sure we do.”
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