BLACKPOOL'S play-off chances suffered a major blow at a soggy Vale Park, where a second half penalty made it three defeats in four games.

Steve McMahon's side now face an uphill struggle to reach the top six as they now trail QPR by six points.

McMahon blamed the referee, who showed Colin Hendry a late red card, and the 'negative' tactics of Port Vale manager, Brian Horton, for the defeat.

Both contributed to the loss but the underlying factor was Blackpool's lack of a finishing touch, and only the Blackpool players can pick up the blame for that.

The game was similar to Tuesdays' dismal defeat to Barnsley in that Pool were to regret chances missed early on in the match. Richard Walker was twice guilty of taking too much time on the ball when presented with golden opportunities at goal.

Martin Bullock was on fire in the opening 20 minutes but he was also guilty of a lack of finishing touch. And on the opposite wing Ben Thornley also had chances but he opted to place the ball when a blast at goal would have been more appropriate.

It was obvious that Blackpool were going to pay for such misses and they almost did as early as the half hour mark, when a Vale header crashed off the underside of the crossbar as Phil Barnes failed to collect a corner.

However the Seasiders weren't so lucky five minutes after the break when Marc Bridge-Wilkinson fired home from the spot to give the Valiant the lead.

The penalty award looked fairly clear - Hendry the guilty man, trailing a leg to fell veteran winger Adrian Littlejohn.

The goal was disappointing from a Blackpool point of view, especially after the missed chances before the break.

Even more disappointing was the reaction - or lack of it - to the goal from the Blackpool players.

There was no Blackpool fight back and the remainder of the half was played in frustrating stop start fashion with Blackpool completely failing to conjure up a single decent attack.

The restless Blackpool away end were made more furious by the inconsistency of the referee in handing out yellow cards. Some fouls from Port Vale went unpunished yet, minutes later, a similar offence from a Blackpool player was branded with a booking.

The final straw came towards when what looked a certain shirt pull on John Murphy in the box was awarded with a foul to Port Vale for diving.

Murphy was subsequently taken off with concussion after the incident.

That prompted a reshuffle, with Chris Clarke introduced at centre-half and Hendry pushed up front.

Deep into injury time, Hendry received his marching orders after taking what was judged to be a dive on the edge of the penalty area, earning him a second yellow card.

Blackpool were booed and jeered off the pitch by a section of the travelling support. After such a fantastic February in which Pool came away with resultsd from top teams like Wigan, Luton and Bristol City it is becoming a miserable March.

The loss to Tranmere was excusable, but two defeats to teams struggling to survive is very disappointing. The season is not over by any means but with only ten games remaining and six points to make up, Pool will have to do something special to get into the play-offs.