'Shocking' what's happened to Wigan Athletic - Blackpool boss

Blackpool manager Neil Critchley admits Wigan Athletic have been ‘very unfortunate’ with their fall from grace – thanks to a ‘shocking’ sequence of events.
Former Blackpool man Curtis Tilt is hoping to return for Latics at Bloomfield RoadFormer Blackpool man Curtis Tilt is hoping to return for Latics at Bloomfield Road
Former Blackpool man Curtis Tilt is hoping to return for Latics at Bloomfield Road

Latics make the short trip to the Fylde coast tonight looking to break a seven-game winless streak.

It’s been a grim return to League One for Latics, who were only relegated from the Championship after being docked 12 points for being placed into administration on July 1.

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The last four months have been heartbreaking for everyone connected with the club, and Blackpool boss Critchley is full of empathy.

Not that he will be looking for anything other than three points against their north-west neighbours at Bloomfield Road (7pm kick-off).

“They’re quite difficult to assess at the moment because they’re in a massive period of transition,” acknowledged Critchley, the former Liverpool Under-21 chief.

“They brought in a lot of players recently but they’ve had some injuries, so they’re trying to find some consistency both in terms of performance and their team selection.

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“We’ll concentrate very much on ourselves and what we’re going to do, but they’ve still got some good players and a lot of their performances have actually been encouraging.

“They’re certainly not far away from getting some victories, but hopefully that doesn’t start on Tuesday night.”

Critchley admits he’s been as bemused as the rest of the footballing world at seeing his quickly and dramatically things have unravelled at the DW Stadium.

“It’s not been pleasant for them,” he acknowledged.

“Paul Cook and the team last season were doing a fantastic job, they had an unbelievable second half to the season and were mid-table in the Championship.

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“Then for that to happen completely out of the blue was really shocking, and you can only feel for the people at the club and the supporters especially.

“It’s not a nice situation for them to be in at all, and you’d have to say they’re very unfortunate to be where they are, and to even be in this division.

“You only have to look at the squad of players they had last season, and how well they did...they were quite deservedly a Championship team.”

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