Opinion: Cardiff City capitulation no great surprise after Blackpool's week of chaos

The Good Friday encounter against their relegation rivals Cardiff City was rightly billed as a must-win six-pointer. Despite Mick McCarthy’s best attempts at face-saving, a point really wouldn’t cut the mustard.

To not only lose, but to lose in such emphatic and humiliating circumstances means the Seasiders can effectively bid goodbye to the Championship even with six games remaining. The fact so many players in tangerine dropped to their knees at the full-time whistle suggests they concur with this depressing reality.

Given what was at stake, this game couldn’t have gone much worse. Whether it was Chris Maxwell arguing with the North Stand, fans marching over to the dugout to vent their anger at McCarthy, the deafening boos that rang out at half-time and at full-time or the sobering sight of supporters heading for the exits after just 40 minutes, this was a season’s worth of misery wrapped into one nightmare afternoon.

All too predictable

But given what occurred at Bloomfield Road during the week after last weekend’s derby debacle, perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised.

In terms of preparation for your biggest game of the season, placating fans that had threatened to storm the training ground by inviting them to address the club’s senior players is far from ideal – and that’s without mentioning the sudden departure of sporting director Chris Badlan after just 126 days in what is widely believed to be farcical circumstances.

It’s no wonder the frankly toxic atmosphere threatened to boil over at times, despite the mood being broadly positive and optimistic prior to kick-off.

Water is wet and all that, but there was a wall of noise from the healthy Bank Holiday crowd as the Seasiders got this match underway. The fans certainly did their bit.

For 10 minutes or so, the players did their bit as well, starting on the front foot and taking the game to their frankly limited opponents. But once again chances came and went without that all-important early opener being scored.

They weren’t helped in their endeavours by losing another striker before the game, their fourth and final one, leaving them without a recognised number nine.

Jerry Yates, who has pulled his hamstring according to McCarthy, has 12 goals to his name this term, whereas the side that took to the pitch in his absence had a combined nine goals between them.

Morgan Rogers, to his credit, did his best in trying circumstances as an experimental striker, but he’s at his best coming in off the wing, not with his back to goal trying to hold the ball up and bring others into play.

The Seasiders actually played some decent football in the opening exchanges, playing through the thirds with ease and picking the likes of Josh Bowler and Ian Poveda out in space, but their lack of a cutting edge in the final third was ultimately their downfall.

Not good enough

At the other end, meanwhile, the Seasiders wilted as soon as Cardiff got their first. The goal was so soft too, Chris Maxwell opting to stay rooted to his goalline having flirted with the idea of coming for the cross allowing Connor Wickham the opportunity to head home from close range.

The Bluebirds had barely got anywhere near Blackpool’s 18-yard box during the opening 20 minutes but, 20 minutes later, they were three to the good.

As we’ve spoken about on many occasions this season, once the Seasiders go a goal down they’re utterly hopeless at fighting back. Only once have they won a game this season after the opposition have scored first.

The half ended 3-0 to the visitors, whose fans couldn’t believe their luck, but it could have been even more such was the hapless nature of Blackpool’s capitulation.

The second-half, similar to Preston last week, was a complete non-event. Cardiff were happy to sit on their lead and take their foot off the gas, confident in the knowledge Blackpool would struggle to score one, never mind three. One did arrive through Josh Bowler, but by then it was far too little, too late. You never sensed there was any belief among the players that a comeback was on the cards.

Long road back

And so here we are, Blackpool staring down the barrel of life back in League One, with trips to Exeter, Cheltenham and yes, Fleetwood on the horizon.

Not only that, it feels like the Seasiders are back to square one, back to where they were before Neil Critchley took over in March 2020.

They’re essentially without a manager, without a sporting director and heading into a summer where there will inevitably be a large turnover of players given the large chunk of players out of contract.

That could well be a good thing, perhaps a clearout and a clean slate is what the club needs. But it’s a far cry from the promising foundations laid by Critchley during the club’s first season back in the Championship last term. Those foundations now lay in tatters.

We can leave the finger-pointing to another day, but what can’t be doubted is that lessons need to be learned from this miserable campaign and fast. From the moment Critchley departed, it’s been one bad decision after another and those mistakes are now coming home to roost.