Wanderers’ wait for a win at Blackpool goes on as a third successive defeat left the Whites with work to do to try and get into the play-offs, writes Pete Oliver.
It’s now 15 attempts and 48 years since the Whites won at Bloomfield Road as Steven Schumacher’s side was added to the list that has tried and failed.
There will have been many poorer performances during that winless run as Wanderers should at least have had something to show for their efforts against a Blackpool side which still has an outside chance of reaching the play-off thanks to a record of just two league defeat since Boxing Day.
The Whites dominated for long spells and looked poised to go and take control after Aaron Collins had headed them level with his 17th goal of the season just before half-time.
But a tendency to concede goals out of almost nothing came back to bite as the Seasiders regained the lead and then, despite peppering the Blackpool penalty area for much of the final half hour, Schumacher’s men couldn’t find a way through again and must now bounce back in their derby against Wigan Athletic next Tuesday night to avoid a two-point gap behind the play-off spots become even harder to bridge.
Blackpool hadn’t been a happy hunting ground for the Whites and again they didn’t make the start they wanted by conceding the opening goal after just 12 minutes.
The Whites gave away a corner they needn’t have done after Will Forrester was forced to block a goalbound shot and the Seasiders made them pay when the ball ultimately dropped in the box for top scorer Ashley Fletcher to drill home his 11th goal of the season.
Wanderers responded in the right way as they looked for an instant reply. But despite some incisive runs from Josh Dacres-Cogley – on his 100th appearance for the Whites – and Szabi Schön they couldn’t fashion a real chance to level.
Schön was deployed on the right-hand side of midfield on his return to the side as one of the three changes made by Schumacher, who went with a flat back four incorporating the fit-again George Johnston and the returning Forrester.
And it was from the right side that Wanderers did produce a deserved equaliser 10 minutes before half-time. Dacres-Cogley was again involved and when he teed up Aaron Morley, the midfield man delivered the perfect cross for Collins to glance a neat header into the far corner of the net.
Schön then nearly squeezed in a second – James Husband clearing off the line – after Collins’ shot had been blocked as Schumacher’s men piled on the pressure in search of a half-time lead as Chris Forino also came within inches of his first Wanderers’ goal.
The tempo didn’t drop at the start of the second half, although it was Blackpool who threatened next through a Fletcher effort that fizzed across the face of goal as both sides sensed the value of the next goal.
And with the home side enjoying their best spell for a while they then went ahead for the second time with nearly an hour gone. Nial Innis – who played under Schumacher at both Stoke and Plymouth – timed his run perfectly and after running onto Albie Morgan’s ball over the top lifted his finish over Nathan Baxter to leave the Whites needing another comeback.
Morley again almost sparked one with a shot superbly saved by Harry Tyrer and then another into the side netting after Schumacher had made a double change to try and wrest back the initiative.
Wanderers certainly did that in terms of possession and one of the substitutes, Carlos Mendes Gomes, was given a heading chance from a George Johnston cross he couldn’t exploit before Schumacher’s final roll of the die with his final two substitutions.
The Whites dominated the closing stages and Morley provided another telling cross which Forino met with a header Tyrer touched over the top as Wanderers stretched every sinew to save a point.
But a frustrating afternoon was to end on a further low note when Morley was then controversially sent off in stoppage time.
The play-maker had again been one of his side’s top performers but is now set to miss Tuesday night’s game at Wigan after referee Graham Scott changed his mind and a yellow card to a red after Morley had pulled back Tom Bloxham as he broke towards goal.
There were white shirts around the Blackpool substitute but with Baxter still making his way back to goal after going up for a last-ditch corner, Scott decided, seemingly following advice from his fourth official, that an obvious goal-scoring opportunity had been denied and dished out a punishment that exacerbated another fruitless trip to the seaside.
Wanderers: Baxter, Dacres-Cogley (Jones 82), Forrester, Forino, Johnston; Schön (Randall 73), Morley, Thomason (Sheehan 63), Osei-Tutu (Mendes Gomes 63); Collins, McAtee (Etete 82). Substitutes: Southwood, Murphy.
Booked: McAtee
Blackpool: Tyrer; Offiah, Casey, Husband, Coulson; Apter (Bloxham , Evans, Morgan, Carey; Fletcher (Hamilton 82), Ennis (Silvera 82). Substitutes: O’Donnell, Gabriel, Pennington, Beesley.
Booked: Evans, Husband, Carey
Referee: Graham Scott