Sunday 22 February 2015 17:17, UK
Lee Clark witnessed his Blackpool side claim a rare away point in a 1-1 draw at Blackburn and maintains hope that an "outrageous" sequence of results can save them from dropping into Sky Bet League One.
The Seasiders are still propping up the Championship table having not won on the road all year but they showed plenty of spirit to halt Rovers' streak of four straight wins at Ewood Park.
Jordan Rhodes' 14th-minute tap-in was cancelled out by loanee Grant Hall's header before half-time as Blackpool claimed only their sixth point on their travels.
Clark acknowledged draws count for little in their current predicament but following on from their rallying performance in a barmy 4-4 draw with Nottingham Forest last week, the fight clearly remains in Blackpool's ranks.
"I knew when I first walked through the door it was an extremely tough situation, I thought we can (survive), I still believe we can," said Clark.
"It's getting harder by the game but we've still got to keep fighting. What's encouraging is the players are still fighting, they aren't throwing in the towel and the supporters can see that.
"We've just got to keep going. I know this game, I've been it in long enough, things can happen that are absolutely outrageous and from now until the end of the season we could go on a ridiculous run of wins that do it for us.
"While there's the possibility of doing it we've got to hope we can."
Seven days on from a 4-1 demolition of Barclays Premier League outfit Stoke in the FA Cup, Rovers found an inexperienced Blackpool a more stubborn proposition at the same venue.
That fact in particular pleased Clark, who had to name teenager Bright Samuel among his substitutes even though he played 90 minutes for the youth team earlier this morning.
"Blackburn, this time last weekend, were beating a really good Premier League team here," added the ex-Birmingham manager.
"In normal circumstances this would be a really good point but we're not in a scenario of normality at the moment."
The draw leaves Blackburn 12 points adrift of the play-off places with 14 games to go and this looked like a huge missed opportunity.
Rovers had plenty of opportunities throughout the contest, with Rudy Gestede twice hitting the woodwork, but a side which stuck four past Stoke failed to add to Rhodes' earlier opener.
"The number of chances we've created was excellent, it's just the actual converting of them," said boss Gary Bowyer.
"The game is sometimes very simple and today's assessment is that we weren't quite ruthless enough to convert the chances we've created."
Rovers are now as many points away from the play-off places as Blackpool are from safety and some bookmakers have stopped taking bets on the Seasiders going down.
Bowyer argued: "We're four games unbeaten is one way of looking at it; I'm sure the pessimists won't, the optimists will, and that's the world we live in."
