Pitch has forced Blackpool to rethink tactics admits Bowyer

Don’t miss the latest football news and gossip from leagues in England, Scotland and Europe with footballwire.co.ukThe Seasiders earned a glowing reputation as a passing side in the opening months of the season, a brand of football that coincided with their storming start to the campaign.

But the surface at Bloomfield Road has worsened over the winter, making passing football virtually impossible.

Bowyer’s side are winless in their last 10 games on home turf – a run that stretches back to October 17.

Instead, Blackpool have had to be more pragmatic in their approach, which has paid dividends with wins at Wigan Athletic and Portsmouth in their last two away games. However, that home win still eludes them.

Blackpool had hoped to pick up a long overdue win at Bloomfield Road against relegation battlers Northampton Town but that match was one of eight in League One to be frozen off on Saturday.

Pool have dropped a place to 17th after Walsall jumped four spots with a 3-0 win at Southend in one of the three fixtures played.

Saturday’s postponement was the second in five weeks at Bloomfield Road, after a waterlogged pitch forced the game against Charlton Athletic to be rearranged.

Bowyer acknowledged the pitch has been an issue and may be a factor behind his team’s poor home form.

He told The Gazette: “We’ve got to change our form at home and there’s a desire within the group to change it.

“It’s about repeating the quality we’ve shown in recent weeks and changing the results we’ve had.

“We’ve said throughout the season that when we weren’t on a particularly good run, it was just a case of sticking in there and turning those losses and draws into victories.

“We managed to do that in a couple of away games recently, which gave everybody a boost of confidence.

“If we can keep everybody fit and get as many points as we can quickly we’ll take it from there.

“We’ve had to change how we play here at home with the surface.

“The surface certainly had something to do with the two away wins.

“You look at other performances away from home this season and we’ve had good wins at Plymouth and Peterborough.

“So we’re more than capable of going away from home and performing well.

“But after Blackburn next Saturday, three of our next four games are at home, so we’ve just got to show the same application and the same desire we showed at Portsmouth.”

A new date for the Northampton game is yet to be confirmed.