McPhillips felt Blackpool made life tougher than they needed to in Charlton win

Posted Sunday, December 09, 2018 by PA

Terry McPhillips admits you can’t beat a late winner but insists Blackpool did not need to make it so difficult against Charlton before Nathan Delfouneso’s goal secured a 2-1 win.

The former Aston Villa hitman finished neatly with just three minutes remaining to give the Tangerines three vital points which moves them level with Charlton in the table.

Armand Gnanduillet put Blackpool ahead inside 16 minutes and the hosts created enough chances to extend that lead before Joe Aribo levelled for Charlton in the second half.

And McPhillips believes his side produced a near-perfect performance – they just now need to be more ruthless.

“That was a massive win for us and a hell of a game, you got your money’s worth I thought and a much-deserved win,” he said.

“We know Charlton are a top team and one of the favourites to go up, but I thought we could have got a second goal before they got their first – we were very good.

“But after they scored, they had a good spell, as you expect, but we came back into it towards the end, as we do, and those reactions are what these lads are all about.

“If you look at the stats from the game, we had more shots on target, more corners and possession was fairly even.

“Their goalkeeper has made two excellent saves in the first half, and while they created their own chances, I felt that we created the better ones.

“The substitutes have come on and made a real difference. Callum [Guy] was excellent in the build up to the goal, and Nathan with a great finish.

“He wanted to make his run, and was calm with the finish, and it was a hell of a goal to win a game like this so late on.”

Following Aribo’s equaliser, Charlton went from strength to strength after Blackpool had bossed them about.

And Karlan Grant fired an effort just wide of Mark Howard’s post as they pushed hard to win it.

But Delfouneso came off the bench to slot in Callum Guy’s cross and bag the three points for the home side – leaving Addicks boss Lee Bowyer very frustrated.

“It is very disappointing to lose a game like this, of course it is,” he said.

“I thought that the game was very scrappy in the first half. It became like a dog fight really, and they were winning more tackles and more second balls and that was frustrating.

“We then gave them a goal head start, allow ourselves to play like them by going long with the ball too many times, and on the whole the first half just wasn’t good enough from our end.”