Stephen Dobbie reflects on interim spell as Blackpool boss ahead of final game

Unless he gets the job on a permanent basis, the 40-year-old will take charge of the Seasiders for the final time on Monday when they take on Norwich City.

While Dobbie was unable to preserve Blackpool’s Championship status, performances certainly improved under his stewardship while two wins have been gained from his five games in charge.

Despite his disappointment at the end result, Dobbie has enjoyed the ride the last month has served up.

“I’ve loved it,” he said.

“I think it’s reinforced what I want to do and where I want to get to in my own career.

“First and foremost I’m hurting like everybody else is because everybody knows what this club means to me.

“Do I want the job? We’ll wait and see. Anybody would be wrong to say they wouldn’t.

“I’ve loved every minute on that touchline leading Blackpool out, so we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks.

“It’s raw just now so we’ll have a couple of days off and reassess what has just happened.”

Speaking after the 3-2 defeat to Millwall last Friday, which confirmed Blackpool’s relegation to League One, Dobbie said talks with the board had yet to take place.

“We’ll wait and see,” he said. “I’m sure there will be conversations in the next couple of weeks.

“First and foremost I’ve got a job to do to plan and prepare for Norwich because we’ll have fans going there and we don’t want to let them down.

“I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I wanted to focus on one game at a time and that’s what you need, full focus. Not what I’m thinking or anything like that.

“As I said, this week we’ll be planning for Norwich as if we still had a chance.”

When asked how important it is Blackpool make a swift appointment, Dobbie added: “I think so. But we’ve obviously still got one game to go so we’ll take a few days off and we’ll start to prepare for that because we want to do it right.

“We’ll obviously have fans travelling to Norwich which is a long way away, so we’ll prepare as if we’re still in with a shout and we’ll do it right.”