“It’s good we’re playing in this window”: Blackpool look to play catch-up on League One opposition
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Blackpool’s focus switches back to League One this weekend as they look to climb the table.
Ian Evatt hopes Blackpool can capitalise upon playing one of the few League One matches taking place this weekend.
The international break means only five games in the third tier are scheduled for Saturday, when the Seasiders visit AFC Wimbledon.
Having had their league commitments curtailed during the last break after call-ups for Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Dion Charles and Karoy Anderson, Blackpool are only without the latter this time around.
It means they head south, looking for only their second league win in 10 games.
That run has dropped them to 19th in the division: one place behind Wimbledon who haven’t won any of their last 10 in all competitions.
It’s a chance for Evatt’s players to catch up on other teams, both in terms of points and games played as they - along with Stevenage, Notts County and Barnsley - have played the fewest League One matches so far with 12.
“It’s good we’re playing in this window; we’re already two or three games behind and that can catch up with you,” Evatt said.
“They have a team which have predominantly been consistent the last few years in what they do and their approach.
“It’s always a difficult place to go and we know what to expect. It will be quite similar to last season but, hopefully, we can have better performances in both games.
“The one before me was at home, we lost (2-0), we lost away (4-1) where the last five minutes were awful for us.”
While Blackpool have only lost one of their last five, two of those games have been in cup competitions.
Six defeats and two draws in the last nine league outings have seen them drop down the table with a one-point gap to the bottom four.
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Evatt maintained: “I think we’re getting there slowly, I’ve never felt like we’re too far away.
“There’s been moments in games where we’ve been competitive, I don’t feel there’s a game that we’ve been blasted out of.
“We need to tighten up in both boxes but there’s loads of work to be done.
“(There was) A positive draw at Sheffield Wednesday, a good performance against MK Dons (2-0 win) - since then, they have won three straight (league) games - and the first half and second half with Mansfield (4-1 loss) was night and day; hopefully we can see more of the first half consistently.”