'We made a mess of them': Delighted Mick McCarthy issues his verdict on Blackpool's thrashing of QPR

Blackpool boosted their survival chances in electric fashion with an absolute dismantling of Gareth Ainsworth’s hapless side.

Andy Lyons bagged two, while Jerry Yates, Curtis Nelson, Jordan Thorniley and Kenny Dougall also got in on the act in this 6-1 thrashing, with the first three goals all coming inside the opening 15 minutes.

McCarthy’s side had only managed to score three times in their last seven games coming into this, but they tore the Hoops to pieces to win for only the second time in their last 20 league games.

However, things now look a lot rosier down at the bottom of the table, Pool reducing the gap to safety to just three points with Cardiff City not in action until tomorrow, where they host West Brom.

“I’ve wanted a big performance for the last I don’t know how many games, but we certainly got one tonight,” McCarthy said.

“They were excellent. From the start, we’ve actually started well most games here but we’ve never got a goal. Tonight we did.

“It was great for Jerry. There’s been much talk about his miss on Saturday and not scoring in 19 games, but he’s worked his socks off. I don’t think he’s had too many chances created during that time but he put that penalty away with a bit of panache and a bit of style.

“I always think if you do that and you put it in the top corner, it lifts the crowd which it did.”

Despite racing into a 3-0 lead after just 15 minutes, McCarthy admits he still felt a little nervous given Blackpool’s recent struggles.

“I was just worried we might give one away! It’s a strange place to be as a manager when you’re down there,” he added.

“It doesn’t happen very often (taking a big lead so early on), certainly not.

“QPR had their day against Watford on Saturday. They deservedly won with a brilliant performance and we stressed beforehand that if we allowed them to get the upper hand, they could come here and cause us real damage.

“Unfortunately for them we were on the front foot and started well and we made a mess of them to be honest.

“My issue is now we can’t be up and down like a fiddler’s elbow. We’ve had a bad performance on Saturday and we’ve had a terrific performance tonight.

“We’ve got Coventry coming and they’ll be better than QPR, so we need to replicate…not the result because that’s highly unlikely, but replicate the performance.”