AFTER the dream performance at Deepdale, Blackpool's season of inconsistency continued as the Pirates of Bristol Rovers plundered Bloomfield Road on Saturday (April 24) to win 2-1.
Three points would have ensured Second Division football next season for the Tangerines - instead, they approach the end of the season with a relegation battle looming.
The hunger so evident in the Seasiders against the old enemy was gone, resulting in a far more lacklustre performance than the 5,033-strong crowd expected.
Brett Ormerod was Blackpool's man of the match by a long way. He was in the perfect place to slot home Junior Bent's accurate cross two minutes after the break.
The first half was a largely uneventful affair. Ormerod went closest to goal for the Seasiders - the initial cross again supplied by Bent, this time from the right.
He found Hills who headed out to Nowland, who crossed for Ormerod at the far post.
Ormerod's superb run looked to have paid dividends for the Tangerines but he was left to watch the ball come back off the bar. Bristol Rovers may as well not have been on the pitch for the first half.
Hardly challenged by the Tangerines, they chose not to attack and didn't register a shot on goal.
Tony Caig was never called into action. Just two minutes after the break, Ormerod looked to have made up for the tedious first period with his second goal in two games.
Unfortunately, the Tangerines rested on their laurels for the duration of the match and that ultimately led to their downfall.
That's actually being unfair to the visitors, because they sprang into life after going 1-0 down and produced the best football of the match.
Junior Bent appeared from nowhere to tackle Jamie Cureton in the area and prevent what looked to be a sure-fire equaliser.
But three minutes later, Cureton scored a superb 20-yard drive to equalise and the Seasiders looked in trouble.
And just ten minutes later, Clark Carlisle saw to it that Cureton scored his 24th of the season when he handled Jamie Shore's cross in the area.
Cureton sent Caig the wrong way: 1-2. Only in injury time did the Seasiders look like snatching a point from the proceedings.
But Carlisle's last minute header skirted over the bar, as did Ormerod's volley.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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