'It’s not insurmountable': Mick McCarthy evaluates Blackpool's survival chances ahead of Bristol City clash

The Seasiders head to Bristol City this weekend looking to claim a crucial three points to aid their fight against relegation.

The game kicks off at the earlier time of 12.30pm due to it being screened live on Sky Sports.

With 11 games remaining, McCarthy knows his side must put a run of results together sooner rather than later, otherwise they will be put at risk of becoming cut adrift.

“It’s not insurmountable, it’s not. You’ve got to be positive and you’ve got to believe it,” McCarthy said.

“There are games coming up. Bristol City played in midweek and we go down there. Can we take advantage of that?

“The two home games coming up (against QPR and Coventry City) are huge for us, that’s for certain.”

When asked if he’s feeling more optimistic now than he was when he took over, McCarthy added: “No, because there’s fewer games. I walked in with 19 games left and we were in a similar position.

“I’m an optimist in the worst of times, but there were more games left when I first came in.

“I looked at Rotherham coming, Huddersfield coming and of course we didn’t get the wins we desired in those games.

“But I’m still optimistic we can do it, but we’ve got to start getting some results pretty soon and that’s Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday because these three games…we don’t want to be adrift when we go into the international break, that’s for sure.”

When asked if he has the belief his Blackpool players are good enough to avoid relegation, McCarthy concluded: “I’ve got the belief we’ll all give it 100 per cent. The lads are all behind it. If we do that then yes, we’ve got a chance.

“We’ve got to have performances like we did against Huddersfield with 10 men, against Swansea with 10 men, those high-intensity performances. That starts on Saturday.

“We’ve had a pat on the back, that’s nice, but it’s forgotten about now so we’ve got to go and do it again.”