Football. Where do we kick off? How can it go from the high of beating your closest promotion rivals 2-0 and then losing to a team that starts the day nine places lower in the table with 18 points less, asks Ross Reid? Don’t know?

Nor does Plymouth Argyle boss Derek Adams, as frustrated as over 10,000 Tuesday night fans at Home Park as they experienced an unnerving sense of déjà vu.

Argyle made the most of a lucky break – a disallowed superbly crafted 12th minute Carlisle ‘goal’ – to beat the Cumbrians on Saturday to move seven points clear of them in the automatic promotion race.

With table-topping Doncaster Rovers drawing 0-0 at Crawley, the Greens moved within striking distance of the leaders.

On Tuesday with everything to play for and the gap between second and first narrowed to four points, Argyle entertained 11th placed Blackpool with high hopes.

But clinical Blackpool swept to their best win of the season and beat the jaded Greens 3-0 in constant rain. Even an occasional sea mist could not mask Argyle’s poor form.

Ironic cheers swept around the ground as David Fox mustered Plymouth’s first shot on target in the 89th minute. By that time however Argyle were three down and out.

Mystified Pilgrims boss Adams admitted: ‘Our performance was not the same as Saturday. It’s difficult to see how that can happen.’

Argyle have now lost to Barnet, Leyton Orient, Notts County and Blackpool at home in their four Tuesday league matches.

Adams said: ‘We don’t do anything different in the way we prepare - it just happens to be that we have just not been very good on a Tuesday evening.’