The mere fact that Blackpool are still a Championship team – for now, at least – owes much to the fine finishing skills of Jerry Yates.
Where would the Tangerines be without him? Yates’ typically well-taken winner against fellow relegation battlers Wigan Athletic on Saturday was his 13th of an highly impressive individual campaign.
Only seven players in England’s second tier have more. A statistic which looks all the more impressive when you consider that only Wigan are keeping Blackpool off the bottom of the table; Steven Dobbie’s side following up that morale-boosting triumph over the Latics with a down-to-earth-inducing 2-0 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion in midweek.
Yates, passed fit to feature against the Baggies after a recent hamstring concern, was well marshalled by a West Brom side who – thanks to goals from Brandon Thomas-Asante and Taylor Gardner-Hickman – pushed Blackpool one step closer to the brink on a sapping Tuesday night at Bloomfield Road.
And there is a chance that Yates will be competing with – rather than against – Thomas-Asante and co at the Hawthorns next season. According to The Sun’s Alan Nixon, West Brom are fans of a hard-working, versatile forward. One who has comfortably outscored every member of Carlos Corberan’s squad throughout 2022/23.
West Brom are fans of Blackpool striker Jerry Yates
Any hopes Blackpool have of retaining Yates for another 12 months likely depend on whether they can pull off the sort of ‘Great Escape’ Tuesday’s visitors managed under Bryan Robson all those years ago. A limp home defeat, however, leaves Blackpool four points from safety with just three games remaining.
Both QPR and Reading, meanwhile, have one game in hand. Cardiff City, two.
Blackpool, then, are almost certain to be a League One club in 2023/24. But that does not mean Yates is destined to be a League One striker.
“He’s good at everything,” Yates’ former Swindon Town coach Richie Wellens tells the EFL Highlights Show. “He has got decent pace, he can hold the ball up.
“He’s a fantastic professional that wants to get everything out of his career.”
West Brom, while up to sixth, have scored just 54 goals in 42 league games this term. Fewer than Swansea, and the same number as Stoke City. Karlan Grant has struggled for form, while Daryl Dike now faces another lengthy lay-off.
Whether Yates is the solution is anyone’s guess. But, by pushing Yates’ Blackpool ever closer to the drop on Tuesday night, West Brom may have given their hopes of signing one of the division’s most underrated centre-forwards a boost.
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