Opinion: The hangover of last season hadn't gone away and Neil Critchley's position at Blackpool seemed untenable - but the timing is still off

The atmosphere inside Bloomfield Road at the end of Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to Stockport County made the 45-year-old’s position with the Seasiders seem untenable.

Upon his return to the Fylde Coast last summer, Critchley had a big job to do in order to win over a number of fans who were struggling to forgive him for the way he departed in the first place 12 months prior.

Ultimately the ex-Liverpool youth coach’s style of football, and reluctance to change, only created further problems for himself.

It was clear for a long time that Critchley would not alter the project he could envision, even if many others could not see it being a success.

A number of times he was adamant the system wasn’t the problem, and there was a clear belief in his mind that it would come good.

The mood and the feeling after the loss to Stockport, and the 2-1 defeat away to Crawley Town on the opening weekend, certainly left him on shaky ground.

In modern day football, even though the league season is only two games old, it’s not a surprise that Blackpool have made the decision to relieve Critchley of his duties.

Only a week ago, we saw Ryan Lowe depart Preston North End, with the feeling being very similar at Deepdale.

These type of situations happen in football, so it isn’t a shock, but it should be, and there’s a lot of questions for the Blackpool hierarchy to answer.

Not so long ago, Seasiders owner Simon Sadler had given Critchley his backing, so surely two games were not enough on their own to make him and others involved lose faith.

The 45-year-old was already pretty unpopular with a large number of fans at the end of last season, and there’d been a large sample of what you would get with the style of play.

Following the defeat to Reading in April, and the disappointment of missing out on the play-offs, surely the decision makers at the club should’ve known then whether they felt Critchley was the right man or not then.

Clearly at that time they thought he was still the person to guide the club forward, opting to stick with his vision, and even buying players to fit the system he wanted to play.

Some of the summer signings are past loanees that have returned to Bloomfield Road because of the impact of the head coach, as well as the club itself.

Meanwhile, some of the new arrivals had cited Critchley as one of the reasons behind their moves - albeit that’d be the case for whoever was in charge.

Yes, the system did have a full season and didn’t provide results, but with new players adapting, it’s hard to think the decision to part way was rational and not reactionary given a full summer of support.

Obviously the mood following a poor start to the season shouldn’t be overlooked, but the decision should’ve already been made back in May or after a few more games to see how things panned out.

Critchley can feel that the timing of this decision is harsh, but will also need to accept that more flexibility was needed concerning his tactics, with things being far too rigid the majority of time despite the occasional bright spark.

At an event celebrating past play-off successes on Friday night, the now-former coach wouldn’t have expected to no longer be at the club less than a week on.

While Critchley did have his flaws, off the pitch he always handled himself well and was a good ambassador for the club, and hopefully in the long-term he will be better remembered for the successes of his first spell.