Terrible Tangerines

THERE will be big changes at Bloomfield Road following the Seasiders' pathetic performance against Bristol City.

In the opening 20 minutes, the Tangerines were simply dreadful.

Bristol City could have been 3-0 up as Pool sat back and let the visitors run around them.

And with only two wins at home this season to their name, the Seasiders were blasted by manager Steve McMahon after the match.

"It is down to hard work. These teams have watched us and seen that hard work and closing us down is what they need to do.

"Some of our players are going through the motions and forgetting how hard they have to work.

"David Bardsley commented midweek that its the players that get managers and coaches the sack.

"He's right and I must do something about that. I won't wait until its too late.

"Before I lose my job, I'll get rid of them first. "We must work, work and work."

Scott Murray was the orchestrator of Bristol's win.

With two good chances early on, he gave the visitors' a well-deserved lead on 20 minutes, firing from eight yards out. Tony Caig had no chance.

Blackpool were stirred into action by the goal, but their chances came few and far between.

John Hills had the best of them, firing a short free kick just wide.

John Murphy notched for the Pool on 42 minutes, latching on to the end of a David Bardsley cross and slotting home from eight yards.

Five minutes after the break, Bristol took the points with a powerful header from Keith Miller.

Scott Murray caused more problems and Tony Thorpe made some piercing runs down the centre of the pitch.

McMahon introduced Junior Bent into the fray to try and snatch a share of the points, but to no avail.

New-signing Mike Newell was redundant for most of the match due to poor service from his team-mates.

Blackpool remain in the bottom four and face a lengthy, and tough, struggle to peel away from the relegation zone.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.