Terry McPhillips managed to do a good job during his spell in caretaker and then permanent charge of Blackpool during the 2018/19 season.

After starting the 2018/19 season with a goalless draw against Wycombe Wanderers, Gary Bowyer elected to resign from his position as manager of Blackpool.

That left the Tangerines reliant on McPhillips, who joined the club with Bowyer to work as his assistant manager, to lead the side through the opening weeks of the campaign.

Having suffered a defeat against Portsmouth at Bloomfield Road in his first league game in caretaker charge, McPhillips then guided his side to two wins and three draws in the following five League One fixtures. That was enough to convince the club’s hierarchy to hand him the job on a permanent basis.

His first league game in charge of Blackpool as their permanent manager ended in a 1-0 win at Plymouth Argyle for McPhillips.

They then went on an unbeaten run of 11 League One matches before a 3-2 defeat at Fleetwood Town at the end of October 2018.

A 3-0 win at home to Burton Albion in November helped move McPhillips’ Blackpool up to 7th place in the table and they were level on points with the play-off places.

However, the Tangerines then managed to win just one of their next seven League One games to fall adrift of the top-six places.

A seven-game unbeaten run after a New Year’s Day defeat against Sunderland brought Blackpool back up to 8th place and they were within five points of the play-off places.

From there though the Tangerines could only win three of their final 14 league games to end up finishing in 10th place in the table.

That was not a bad effort for McPhillips in his first-ever managerial role and the hope would have been that he could have built on that heading into the 2019/20 season. However, McPhillips chose to leave the club in July 2019 with him not wanting to be a manager in the long-term.

Since leaving Blackpool, McPhillips has had a spell with East Bengal working alongside manager Robbie Fowler as a set-piece specialist.

He departed that role when Fowler left the club and was out of work for a brief period until recently.

National League North side Southport have hired McPhillips as an assistant manager as they attempt to move away from the bottom end of the table after a challenging start to the campaign.

So far, Southport have won two, drawn one and lost one of their opening four matches in the National League North since McPhillips was appointed to his role as assistant manager.

That is a significant improvement from the two wins in their opening 11 games of the campaign in all competitions prior to his arrival.