Don't expect too much in the way of goalmouth action in Tuesday's League 2 clash at Blackpool.
Blackpool v Barnet - Tuesday 19:45
Blackpool surrendered a two-goal lead for the second match in succession against Exeter on Saturday, leaving Gary Bowyer with a six-hour coach journey home to contemplate the damage that had been done to their promotion prospects. Had the Seasiders held out in both games, they would be just three points shy of the play-offs. As it is, the gap is seven points.
Mental fatigue appeared to be the problem in Devon, momentary lapses in concentration allowing Ollie Watkins and Reuben Reid to score in stoppage time of each half. In the previous game, at home to Crewe, Bowyer labelled the entire second half performance as unacceptable. Naturally, the Seasiders will redouble their efforts to guard against such shortcomings here.
And that could lead to a low-scoring encounter. Bloomfield Road isn’t the most inspiring venue to play football nowadays, even less so on a Tuesday night. Two midweeks ago, Blackpool played out a 0-0 with struggling Crawley in front of barely 2,000 fans and similar-sized crowd might well be treated another 90 minutes of shadow boxing if Barnet continue down the same path.
The Bees have faced just 12 attempts in their last three matches with only three of those finding the target, yet they’ve somehow conceded twice and dropped five points. New boss Kevin Nugget is encouraging them to keep going. If their luck turns defensively, we should fancy our chances of landing bets on under 1.5 goals as 5/2 and no goalscorer at 10/1.
