Terry McPhillips on Blackpool's miserable defeat to Burton and the extent of Mark Howard's injury

Goals from Liam Boyce, Jamie Allen and Lucas Akins handed the Brewers a comfortable home win, their first at the Pirelli Stadium since Boxing Day.

For Blackpool it was a thoroughly miserable day at the office, which saw them slip down to ninth in the League One table, four points adrift of Doncaster Rovers who still have a game in hand to play.

“We were really poor today, as poor as we were at Bristol Rovers," McPhillips said. "You say it was a one-off but it hasn’t been, has it?

“Saying that, I thought Chris Long could have scored first. It’s a great cross from Liam Feeney and he’s elected to go with his foot when it should have been a diving header.

“Longy had a shot towards the end of the first half, Nya Kirby’s had a turn and shot at the end, Armand Gnanduillet has dragged one past the post, Ben Heneghan had a header from a corner and missed it.

“I think the stats are pretty equal but stats aren’t always correct, are they? We just weren’t good enough.

“I thought their third goal, the corner leading up to it was a goal kick although we did get ourselves into a pickle.”

Blackpool's day was made even worse when first-choice keeper Mark Howard was stretchered off in the 14th-minute after getting his foot stuck in the turf.

The 32-year-old was later seen wearing a leg brace and crutches and it is suspected he has snapped his achilles.

“It doesn’t look good," McPhillips admitted.

“He’s been superb for us, so that wasn’t good news and it’s not good news for him. We wish him all the best.

“Obviously he was a miss for us after that and if it the case and that’s what he’s done, he’ll miss the rest of the season I would have thought.”

With Christoffer Mafoumbi called up to the Congo squad for their African Cup of Nations qualifier, it leaves Myles Boney as the club's only available goalkeeper.

It has been suggested the club could look at bringing in an emergency loan, something that is being considered.

“We’ll have to do a bit of work on that and find out," McPhillips said.

“Myles Boney is the home-grown player on the bench and Chris has gone away with the Congo, so we’ll see what we have to do for next Saturday.”