'The first half was not acceptable': Terry McPhillips' verdict on Blackpool's final day defeat to Gillingham

The Seasiders ended the season on a sour note as the visitors ran in three unanswered goals in the opening 45 minutes.

Brandon Hanlan opened the scoring early on before Tom Eaves scored a quickfire brace before the interval.

Pool rallied in the second period but they were unable to find the back of the net once again, eventually succumbing to a disappointing defeat in their final match of the campaign.

“We’ve very disappointed, the first half is not acceptable and that’s that," McPhillips said.

“As well as we’ve done all season with the spirit and the fight and all that, it wasn’t there first half.

“I thought second half we did much better and we just needed a goal to spark us into life.

“I thought the crowd were great but they have been ever since the Southend game, they’ve been superb. It was just a shame we couldn’t finish it off for them and get a win.

“It’s football, anything can happen and you just never know what is going to happen in terms of individual mistakes, decisions or dropping too deep, not getting to the ball, stuff like that.

“They were just the far superior team in the first half and we were nowhere near where we usually are.

“Second half we made a game of it and looked like we might, we thought we scored on a couple of occasions but it wasn’t to be. It was a really disappointing day.

“It’s the last game and fair play to them, they were a handful. But we paid for our mistakes and maybe some of the lads you wouldn’t expect were at fault for some of the goals.

“But I don’t think you can just put it on one player, but it wasn’t good enough that’s for sure and it’s a mountain climb even if we get one back.

“I thought Jimmy coming on was a positive and he showed what he can do. It’s one year since he played his last game on the last day of last season.

“He played half a game and really affected him and did lots of good stuff.

“Nathan Delfouneso also gave us an impetus but we couldn’t get that goal to spark a comeback, but we had probably given ourselves too much to do anyway.”