Blackpool boss Ian Holloway has become increasingly frustrated at the negative reaction from the fans since their relegation back into the Championship after just one season in the top flight. But Seasiders duo Keith Southern and Gary Taylor-Fletcher are insisting that fans who are slating Holloway are out of order.
Southern said to the Blackpool Gazette: "If the manager wants to read message-boards, that is completely his decision but it isn't something I'd do. You manage a football club how you see fit. You make decisions, big decisions, and you are paid to do that.
"Nobody should be critical of the manager for what he has done at this football club. I think it is an annoyance if you listen to outside influences, to people who have nothing better to do with their time than make silly remarks."
Taylor-Fletcher added: "I have felt negativity. There are quite a few people giving stick and the chairman is quite right to come out and back the manager. What the manager has done for the club has been fantastic.
"The turnaround over the last few years - getting back to the Championship for the first time in 30 years, then back to the top flight after 40 - means the expectations have risen quite a bit and we've all got to deal with that.
"But we are only two points off the play-offs, we're still in a good position and two or three years ago we would have taken this. You are always going to get a minority who will shout a few obscenities, but it is part and parcel of football and the best way to answer that is to score a goal and get a win.
"But it is uncalled for because the position we are in isn't a bad one. We are still trying to work out how best to play as a team and who to pick, but we are only 13 games in and there are 33 to go."
