Opinion: Paul Ince's return to Bloomfield Road adds extra spice to Blackpool's game against Reading

Former Manchester United team-mates Paul Ince and Mark Hughes are back in the game, while Paul Simpson, Derek Adams and Grant McCann have returned to familiar locations.

It’s funny how football throws up weird coincidences.

McCann takes charge of Peterborough United this weekend against Hull City, the club whom he left a month ago.

As for Adams, you knew he’d be returning to Morecambe once his departure from Bradford City was followed by Stephen Robinson’s surprise move to St Mirren.

As for former Seasider Simpson, it was only a couple of months ago he virtually ruled out a return to the hotseat at his hometown club Carlisle United.

Such is their current mess though – the Cumbrians are currently languishing in the bottom two in League Two – the 55-year-old felt a sense of duty to try and retain the club’s Football League status.

The most surprising appointment has to be that of Hughes though, who has dropped down to the fourth tier to get his career back up and running.

The 58-year-old has only ever worked at the top end of the game, but he’s been out of work since leaving Southampton in 2018 and clearly feels he had to drop down to find work.

There’s dropping down and then there’s this, though – but the best of luck to him.

If you think four years out of the game is a long time, it pales into insignificance compared to Ince, who made a winning return after eight years on Tuesday night.

The “Guv’nor” is now in charge of a Reading side who had looked destined to drop below a resurgent Derby County and into the bottom three.

However, as we’ve seen with these recent managerial appointments, a week is a long time in football.

Back-to-back wins – one under Ince, the other under former boss Veljko Paunovic – have given the Royals an eight-point buffer to the relegation zone.

Lucas Joao has made a big difference since returning from injury.

The 28-year-old, who missed five months of football, has five goals in his last seven games, so he’s one to keep an eye on.

John Swift is also a highly talented player that has rediscovered his form in recent weeks too, scoring three times in five games.

A few weeks ago, Blackpool would have viewed this fixture as a comfortable home win but, all of a sudden, there are a few seeds of doubt.

The most important thing for Neil Critchley’s men on Saturday is to perform well, because they weren’t able to do that against QPR on Wednesday night.

Critchley might have disagreed in public, but I’m sure what he says to the media and to his players are often two completely separate things.

The Seasiders need to stop conceding damaging late goals, for a start.

That’s easier said than done, of course, but even before QPR’s inexplicable late winner – with 10 men, no less – Blackpool’s display still wasn’t what we come to expect from a Critchley team.

Had the game ended 1-1, which wouldn’t have been a bad result even when you take the red card into account, there still would have been a feeling of deflation. It would have papered over the cracks a little.

The onus will be on Blackpool to attack on Saturday and let’s hope that brings out the best in them, because they’ve always been a team who are at their best when they let loose and free the shackles.

‘High risk, high reward’ has been a phrase bandied about in recent weeks but, unfortunately, we didn’t see much evidence of that approach in West London in midweek.

Let’s just hope it was a one-off and a bump in the road.

If I’m being honest, I felt the talk of a late play-off charge was a bit optimistic anyway.

It’s great to set your ambitions high and it wouldn’t be the first time Blackpool have proven me wrong.

However, there are a lot of teams between the Seasiders and the top six and a hell of a lot of work to make up the gap, which now stands at 11 points.

We don’t want the season to peter out as there’s still 13 games to go, but it isn’t a bad situation to be in, is it?

I’m sure Hull and Peterborough, the two sides to accompany them up from League One last season, would certainly swap places.

The Seasiders just need to get back to winning ways this weekend, follow it up with a victory at out-of-form Stoke City and then see where it takes them.

There’s a two-week international break after that, which gives Blackpool time to take stock and get some players back from injury ahead of the run-in.

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