Blackpool boss Neil Critchley salutes his side’s spirit after Posh win

Posted Sunday, November 22, 2020 by PA

Head coach Neil Critchley saluted the spirit of his Blackpool side after they snatched a last-gasp 2-1 win that saw Peterborough knocked off the Sky Bet League One summit.

Striker Gary Madine hit a 90th-minute winner, tucking away a CJ Hamilton cross, as the Seasiders reeled off a fifth consecutive win in all competitions.

Blackpool had earlier hit the front through Jerry Yates’ strike in the 19th minute and they held that advantage until birthday-boy Frankie Kent headed Posh level with six minutes to go.

But Posh celebrations proved to be short-lived as Madine restored Blackpool’s lead before Jonson Clarke-Harris sent a header against the crossbar as Darren Ferguson’s side were unable to prevent a first home league defeat of 2020.

Critchley said: “I thought we were excellent against a Peterborough team with a great home record and huge attacking threat.

“My only criticism is that we should have gone two or three up and killed the game off, but the spirit of the players has been fantastic and they showed it again to get a big win for us.

“I was really crestfallen when Peterborough got level after not having a shot on target. To concede like that was really painful.

“The lads could easily have felt like they weren’t going to win the game but showed great character to go down the other end and get three points, which were deserved in my opinion.

“It is great to back the performance up with the result as we haven’t always had that. Now it’s nice for the boys to have the feeling that they win when they play well and this result shows we can compete with anyone in this division.

“I’m sure teams will now know they have a tough fixture when they’re playing Blackpool.”

Posh boss Darren Ferguson said: “We were on a great run but there is no doubt we’ve had a blip.

“We had a fantastic home record that has now been ended and the opposition are always fully aware of that.

“Blackpool would have expected a tough game against a good team, but we allowed it to be far too easy for them in the opening 30 minutes.

“We found improvement in the second half and everyone watching the game will have seen that clearly.

“We got ourselves level and at that point we probably looked like the team most likely to win, but I’ve seen it many times where a team is hit by a sucker-punch in that sort of situation and it happened to us.

“The reason we lost the game, though, is because we were nowhere near good enough in the opening third of it and our first-half performances have to improve. We can’t expect to keep getting away with it.”