Blackpool boss admits there were no positives after derby day defeat to Preston North End

The defeat meant Blackpool are one step closer to relegation to League One. currently sitting second bottom in the Championship.

Brad Potts opened the scoring against his former side, with Ben Whiteman arching a free kick around the wall to double PNE’s lead before half time. Tom Cannon made it 3-0 six minutes into the second half, with Jerry Yates tapping in a consolation goal with just a couple minutes left of the game, the win all but secured anyway from a North End perspective.

McCarthy was brought in to try and keep Blackpool in the division and admits there were no positives for him to take after the Seasiders lost at Deepdale.

He said: “I’m not going to stand here and look for positives from a 3-1 defeat. It was a really difficult day.

“I thought they started better, we then have a couple of half chances which we could have done better with.

“But we don’t stop a quick free-kick, we don’t stop a cross, we don’t really deal with the cross when it comes in particularly well but when he finishes it it’s emphatic. So emphatic it got the crowd up as well.

“The free-kick for the second was a bit soft, but we’ve got to block it. We turned and it went through the wall. You’ve got to head that.

“We’re 2-0 down and they’re playing well at that point, so it became really difficult for the team.

“I had to change it at half-time. I’m not going to keep doing the same things, that’s stupid and I thought we might create a few more chances, but we lose the ball and it ends up in the back of our net for the third. That really kills it completely.”

McCarthy made three changes at half time in the hopes of sparking his side into life, Charlie Patino, Josh Bowler and Ian Poveda all coming into the game.

But before the second half had got into full swing, his men were further behind. The trio were attack-minded players that were able to get some joy at times, despite Blackpool’s race being run.

On the introduction of the trio, McCarthy said: “Sometimes when the third goal goes in you end up passing it around and passing it a lot better. There’s no doubt they’re more technical players but it looks a bit like that.

“We created a few chances, James Husband put in a couple of great crosses from the left but we’ve not scored one. If we do it, it just changes things, like their first does, because it gets the fans up.

“When we were five up against QPR they had all the ball, they were passing it for fun but they weren’t going anywhere. It does look like that, but we did create some chances. But unless we take them…

“Our leading goalscorer has 12, somebody else has got three and the next has two, so it’s a real problem for us: putting the ball in the net.

“It doesn’t help we’ve got strikers who are injured and are out for the rest of the season.”