Under-fire McDonald slams Blackpool's worst display all season

Blackpool's manager Neil McDonald during Saturday's game

Chris Porter’s strike on the hour saw Pool crumble to a 1-0 home defeat to second-bottom Colchester and drop back into the relegation zone.

Wins for Chesterfield and Oldham, and Fleetwood’s last-minute equaliser at Southend, left Pool a point from safety, having played at least one game more than all their relegation rivals.

With just four games to go, Pool’s survival hopes are on a knife-edge and McDonald branded Saturday’s display their worst of the season.

The Pool boss blasted: “That’s the poorest we’ve played in everything – defence and attack. It was a bad day at the office

“We never really got the ball down and passed it. We didn’t compete and didn’t win any battles all over the pitch.

“We were poor. I was disappointed with every single one of the players. I wouldn’t say we were rubbish, I just don’t think we performed.

“Hopefully we can put that one down as a blip. It wasn’t just one or two, it was everyone.”

His team created very little against a U’s side who started the day 10 points behind them and had former Pool loan man Elliot Lee in outstanding form.

Tempers boiled over in the second half, with chants of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ directed at McDonald.

It followed his decision to replace attackers Mark Cullen and Danny Philliskirk like-for-like, but the manager felt the players have a responsibility to earn the fans’ support.

He said: “The dynamics of the team have been good. Partnerships have been working well and for that reason I picked the team I did.

“They caught us out by scoring one goal, which caused the nerves and tension in the stadium.

“We know we have to play better if we want the crowd to get behind us.”

Colchester enjoyed 58 per cent of possession and had 18 shots on goal to Pool’s six.

And McDonald was quick to hold his hand up and admit his side were well beaten.

He said: “They took their chance and probably deserved to win. We didn’t deserve anything from the game and that’s what we got in the end.

“We didn’t create many chances in front of goal and that’s the most disappointing thing.”