Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman is desperate for his side to get back on track – but the Reds couldn’t have a tougher game than a trip to Blackpool.
Neil Critchley’s side sit fourth in the League One table and are currently on a 14-game unbeaten run.
They are unbeaten in the league at Bloomfield Road since the 20th October – 13 games – and have a striker in-form in Jerry Yates, who has 20 goals and five assists.
Coleman admits his team are hurting after losing 5-1 to relegation-threatened AFC Wimbledon at home on Saturday, despite taking a fifth minute lead.
The Reds are in 12th place, six points outside the Play-Offs, in a tightly packed table and all of their remaining games, except Rochdale on Saturday, are teams challenging for promotion.
“The lads are hurting after Saturday,” said Coleman. “There is not point beating them with a stick, we will work on our shape today and try and win tomorrow.
“Blackpool have done well this season. I said it from day one that they would be there or thereabouts, they have a large quality squad and that has come to the fore in the last couple of weeks. They have had injuries and you haven’t noticed them.
“That’s the sign of having strength in depth and they have it all over the park.
“I have been impressed the way Neil Critchley has gone about it, I like him as a fella and he comes across really well. I enjoy speaking to him and we will have a good chat after the game tomorrow.
“I like to see people who play football the right way, who have good ethics about them, thrive and it’s nice to see Blackpool thriving.
“They have a lot to play for, automatics as well, and we have just got to try and get ourselves back on track.
“If we can, that will do me and we will take it one game at a time. Tomorrow is one of those games where you can kick start yourself. Historically we have done well against teams in the top ten and we will try and do our best again.”
On reflection, Coleman says it’s been a good season for the Reds, whatever happens.
“If you detach yourself from it and not get het up in all the hustle and bustle of football, it’s been a good season really, we have done well. We have done better than people would have expected us to.
“As James said: “If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor,” I think that sums it up because we have reached such heights this season, played some really good football, had some good results and got ourselves into good positions you can’t help but be disappointed when things like that happened on Saturday and at Peterborough.
“It’s been a really hard season, I was only thinking today that there are 24 days to go and we still have seven games to play.
“I wish there were fans in the grounds, it’s probably times like Saturday when you miss them more than anything. I just hope we are in good shape between now and the end of the season, win a few games and get ourselves back on track and it will be great to have the fans back next season.”
After coming off the bench on Saturday, Joe Pritchard is back in contention for a starting place as is Ben Barclay.
The full pre-match interview video with John Coleman is available to watch on the club's official YouTube channel, CLICK HERE to find out more!