Neil Critchley cites Blackpool's play-off nous as he makes admission over battle with Barnsley, Oxford United and Lincoln City

The 3-2 victory over Barnsley at Bloomfield Road on Saturday afternoon, leaves the Seasiders just two points off the Yorkshire outfit following their recent drop off in form, which has seen them go five games without picking up a win.

The Tykes, who currently sit in fifth on 75 points, finish their campaign at home to Northampton Town, and will need three points to guarantee a play-off place.

Just below them by a point in sixth is Lincoln City, who moved above Oxford United after beating Cheltenham Town 2-1, leaving their fate in their own hands ahead of their meeting with Portsmouth on the final day.

As for the U’s, they are in seventh on goal difference following their 1-1 draw with Stevenage at the Kassam Stadium on Friday night, and finish the campaign away to Exeter City. Blackpool trail both the Imps and Des Buckingham’s side by a point, and are reliant on two of the three other games elsewhere going their way.

The Seasiders’ play-off hopes looked over following a poor Easter period, but Critchley states he was always confident that they could turn things around.

"I never doubted that we would battle,” he said.

"That’s four wins on the trot, we’re unbeaten in five- we’re building momentum. We’ve been on runs late in the season at this football club before and won at Wembley. We can do it again, but this time it’s out of our hands.

"Anything can happen, obviously we were hoping Cheltenham would do something (against Lincoln), but that didn’t quite happen. We’re in there, that was our plan. We know what we need to do, a draw is not good enough, we have to go to Reading and win. It’s not in our hands; we are reliant on other teams doing us a favour.

“It doesn’t surprise me that we’ve stayed strong. If you look at our record now compared to when we finished third, it’s not dissimilar in terms of points and wins, we just hope that three points next week will be enough for us to get into those fantastic play-offs.”