The Seasiders slipped into the bottom three as a result of Saturday's crushing 3-1 home defeat by Wigan, their fifth loss in six Barclays Premier League games.

They have won only two of their 16 league since the turn of the year to slide down the table and into the scrap for survival.

They had been banking on a season-saving return from four successive home games, but Wigan's win at Bloomfield Road came on the back of Arsenal's the previous weekend, and that has piled on the pressure for the visits of Newcastle and FA Cup finalists Stoke before the end of the month.

Campbell told the club's official website, www.blackpoolfc.co.uk: "The good thing is that we have still got five games to go. Hopefully we can buck our ideas up because we need to.

"We are disappointed with the position we are in because we were eighth at one point last year, so we now need to stand up and be counted.

"The players, the manager, the staff and the fans need to stick together and be counted as one.

"From day one, our position was to stay in this league. Our togetherness and ethic to work for each other has been second to none, and we need to keep that going to achieve what we were achieving at the start of the season.

"Our season starts now. Fingers crossed, we can turn around our fortunes.

"We are only a point away from getting out of the relegation zone and there's still a lot to play for. We knew it wouldn't always be rosy and we would have settled for 17th place at the start of the season if it meant staying in this league."

Manager Ian Holloway was today anxiously awaiting an update on key midfielder Charlie Adam, who left the stadium on crutches on Saturday evening after having his foot put in a protective cast while medics waited for the swelling to recede before they could fully assess the injury.