New Blackpool boss Lee Clark sees positives after Ipswich defeat

Lee Clark has vowed to tap into the potential of his new Blackpool players after his reign as boss began with a 2-0 defeat at home to Ipswich.

The struggling Seasiders sacked Jose Riga on Monday having won just one out of 15 games in all competitions this term.

And former Birmingham manager Clark failed to inspire an upturn in fortunes for the Championship's bottom side, who fell behind on 26 minutes.

David McGoldrick opened the scoring with his fifth league goal of the season and Daryl Murphy added the second on the hour mark for the Tractor Boys.

"Obviously I'm very disappointed to lose my first game but I knew it was a big job when I took the challenge on and that's obviously reiterated it," said Clark.

"The job in the short term is rebuilding the players' self-belief and confidence. We seemed to be all right and then when we went one-nil down we seemed to lose a bit of self-belief.

"They are such an honest group of boys. I don't think anyone can point the finger at them for their attitude and their application. It's just having that little bit of quality on the ball and not giving such cheap goals away really.

"The quality is there. There are some good players who are, for whatever reason, not showing their full potential. I wouldn't have taken the job on if I didn't think it was possible to survive.

"I want to give the players an opportunity but it won't be a long period of time."

McGoldrick tucked home from inside the six-yard box after Teddy Bishop's mis-hit shot.

And the visitors eventually doubled their lead on 60 minutes as Luke Hyam's cut-back from the by-line found top scorer Murphy, who struck home left-footed from six yards for his eighth of the season.

"I think it was terrific performance," said Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy, who was celebrating his two-year anniversary as manager.

"It was a solid performance and we had to withstand a bit of an onslaught as well at times.

"I was delighted with that, it's great for all the lads, especially those playing, that we've kept a clean sheet.

"Their two strikers, Nile Ranger and Ishmael Miller, they're a handful them. Nathan Delfouneso too. There's lots of them that have been places and been thought highly of.

"Joan Oriol is a good little footballer. They are no mugs and there are a lot of players there who have been thrown together at the start of the season which doesn't make it easy, but there are some good individual players there and that makes them a handful

"There's not a chance we've not had to really put a shift in there. That has been a hard game. It's a good three points."

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