Hopes are fading

A 1-0 home defeat against Blackpool left Latics 11 points adrift of their sixth place target, and a fourth successive appearance in the end of season knockout is looking more remote. While unwilling to dismiss his side's chances of bridging that large gap, Jewell was sufficiently worried about Saturday's performance to glance over his shoulder at the other end of the table top.
He said, “I'm not going to rule us out of the play offs, but that certainly wasn't play off form against Blackpool. We have to try and put this behind us quickly and look to the next game for some points. I hope we're not going to slip back to our early season form, otherwise we will find ourselves in a relegation dogfight.”
“That worries me because we haven't got enough players in the building to see us through the nitty gritty part of matches.” An 11th minute goal from striker John Murphy gave Blackpool victory in front of Latics' highest crowd of the season - 7,357 - which included a healthy away following. After wards Jewell was furious with the side. He stormed, “We didn't have the mental strength, the physical strength, or the desire to win the game, and that was the disappointing thing.”
“No one likes losing any game, but there are ways to lose and that wasn't one of them. I used the excuse of it being a bad day at the office when we were beaten by Reading. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. But that was our second defeat in three games and without being too damning about it, that is not good enough.”
“We had one or two decent chances, the ball flashed across the box a few times, but we didn't have anyone to get in on the end of it. Give Blackpool credit though, they worked and battled hard and came away with all three points. It was all down to courage and hard work. I know we have good players here, but good players have courage in abundance.”
“I have praised our players over the last few months, but now they have to take this on the chin and have a good look at themselves in the mirror. This performance wasn't good enough and not acceptable.” To complete the gloomy picture, three players in an already stretched squad reported in for treatment today. Striker Lee McCulloch missed the game through a back injury, his place going to Simon Haworth.
Pat McGibbon limped off in the 49th minute with a thigh strain, while Gray Teale went over on his ankle late in the game, leaving Latics to soldier on for the final 10 minutes with 10 men. Jewell said, “Lee had a back spasm on Friday and that left him with a bad back on the morning of the game. Pat has a thigh strain while Gary has twisted his ankle - he went over on it after we used all our subs.”

Story by Dave Seddon of the Wigan Evening Post