Neil Critchley hails Blackpool’s defensive display

Posted Sunday, October 01, 2023 by PA

Blackpool head coach Neil Critchley praised his side’s defensive efforts in their 1-0 win at Barnsley.

Jordan Rhodes scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot after Corey O’Keefe brought down CJ Hamilton.

Critchley said: “It’s nice to keep a clean sheet and score, because we’ve not done that away from home so far.

“We defended magnificently well for the whole game, particularly in the second half. We defended crosses well, made blocks when we needed to block.

“We’ve played a lot better than that with the ball and we’ll have to play better than that with the ball if we don’t want the pattern of the game to go in a similar fashion.

“There’s 46 games, sometimes you might not play well and you have to dig it out and grind it out. We’ve done that today and I’m delighted for the supporters who’ve travelled.”

The win was Blackpool’s first away from home this season and Critchley said: “You want to tick off certain things during the season as quickly as you can.

“We always carried a threat, but we’ve played better with the ball in a lot of our other games away from home and lost.

“The players knew at the end of the game that they needed to play better with the ball to relieve some of the pressure.

“But, for all Barnsley’s pressure, they got the ball forward and made a lot of changes and put bodies in the box, I don’t think Daniel Grimshaw’s had a save to make in the game.

“The spirit and togetherness of the team was outstanding and I think the supporters appreciate that they can see a team going the extra inch to win the game.”

Barnsley head coach Neill Collins felt his side contributed to their own downfall.

He said: “A poor mistake to give away the penalty and then we huffed and puffed and had two or three moments, but probably didn’t do enough at times.

“Ultimately we’ve lost a very tight game where there was nothing between the teams. If anything, we looked comfortable, but we have to learn to be getting it home.

“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot, I think we did the same against Oxford, we gave away a penalty early on.

“Today we were compact, solid. But we need to create more if a team is going to do that.

“As the game went on, we started to create some more opportunities but lacked a bit of quality and a little bit of desire that might’ve just made the difference.”