BLACKPOOL just wouldn't be Blackpool if they didn't have one or two glitches along the road to success.

On the back of a momentous 6-0 thrashing at home against promotion race rivals Scunthorpe, we let ourselves down with a defeat away at Hartlepool.

The week had started positively for the Seasiders following our biggest win so far this season, with the fantastic news that Steve McMahon had signed an extension to his contract that will see him stay with the Seasiders until the end of the 2002/2003 season.

There was also a positive and informative phone-in with Karl Oyston and Mike Davies on Radio Lancashire at the beginning of the week in which many of the questions and concerns that were held by us the supporters were answered in a genuinely honest manner.

The week also saw the arrival of striker Richard Walker from Aston Villa on a one month loan signing. Hopefully his premiership experience will have a positive effect on our strikers and also bolster the talent we have within our squad. We look forward to seeing him play and we hope his influence will lead us to several more impressive victories. The last week has also been a good one for Real Progress with our membership increasing rapidly and our Lapsed Fans Survey growing in impetus. We also received a letter from Karl Oyston who has expressed interest in our survey of lapsed fans and he appears to be agreeable to a meeting with us once the survey has been completed in order to discuss our findings.

Even though we were brought back down to earth with a bump on Saturday it was great to see us bounce back against Cardiff on Tuesday. Hopefully we can make it twowins in a row agianst Lincoln City on Saturday.

Blackpool never give us supporters an easy ride and we must not give up hope of promotion, the race is still wide open and we must show the Seasiders our continued support to ensure we make the play-offs this season.

Ruth Tuffnell (Real Progress, Membership Secretary)