Nigel Pearson: Bristol City guilty of overplaying after conceding late equaliser

Posted Sunday, August 28, 2022 by PA

Nigel Pearson admitted his Bristol City side were guilty of overplaying as they conceded a last-gasp equaliser in a 3-3 Championship draw away to Blackpool.

Theo Corbeanu’s 90th-minute strike ensured the points were shared at Bloomfield Road in an entertaining game – Blackpool’s second successive 3-3 draw.

But for the Robins boss, the overriding sensation was one of frustration, after seeing his side twice come from behind only to throw away a 3-2 lead through their own overambition.

Pearson said: “We’re disappointed that we didn’t see the game through because we played well. We came up against a side who caused us quite a few problems with a relatively-direct style at times.

“We went behind twice, bounced back, kept our composure and it’s just unfortunate that individual errors have cost us those two extra points.

“Once a bit of time goes by, I’ll reflect in a slightly-different way but at the minute, we’ve basically thrown away a couple of points which is very frustrating because we’ve played well.

“I know it’s a mistake. I can’t change that now. There’s no point me trying to overthink that. We overplayed.

“This is not an easy place to come to. The atmosphere is quite hostile for visiting teams, both players and the staff. It’s a good football venue to come to and you need to be committed to get something from it.”

Josh Bowler had fired Blackpool in front after good build-up play by Gary Madine, with Tommy Conway levelling matters after the home side had missed a host of chances to stretch their lead.

They went back in front through Jerry Yates and looked set to take control of the game, but instead, City roared back into it.

First Antoine Semenyo equalised with only his second touch after coming on. Then Marvin Ekpiteta’s own goal gave the visitors the lead for the first time, the defender unfortunate to get the final touch after a goalmouth scramble.

It took Corbeanu’s opportunistic effort for Blackpool to get anything from the game, a point for each team meaning they both sit just below the play-off positions at this early point in the campaign.

A week ago, Blackpool had come from 3-1 down to salvage a point against Burnley.

While the equaliser came later this week, boss Michael Appleton was rather more disappointed at the outcome, having controlled large periods of the game.

He said: “Obviously two 3-3 draws on the bounce is exciting for the fans. I was a little bit more pleased last week with the 3-3 than I was with the one this week.

“But the players have shown great character today. It was a game full of errors for both sides, it was just one of those games – it could’ve been 6-6.

“I just felt once we went 2-1 up we were dominating the game, controlling it and we had some really good opportunities to turn the screw and go two ahead and that didn’t happen and when that doesn’t happen, you can get punished as we did.

“The second half from a disappointment point of view we switched off, they played a quick free-kick, we switched off and we got punished.

“The third goal that can happen, players make mistakes, a couple of errors in the space of two seconds.”