Blackpool 1-1 Oxford United: Seasiders drop further points in play-off race following draw at Bloomfield Road

Matthew Pennington opened the scoring for the Seasiders during the first half, before Mark Harris quickly pulled the visitors back level- with both goals coming from corner routines.

Following last week’s defeat to Stevenage, Neil Critchley’s side would’ve been hoping to pick up maximum points against another team with their sights set on the play-off places, but were unable to find a winner on this occasion.

Blackpool had a couple of half chances during the early stages of the game. After his recent success in similar areas, Albie Morgan tried his luck from the edge of the box, with slight deflection taking the ball wide of the right post. Meanwhile, a good passage of play down the right side opened up space in the box for Karamoko Dembele, who curled his shot off target.

The opening goal came in the 17th minute after a well worked setpiece routine from the Seasiders. A deep corner into the box was met by Ollie Norburn, with the midfielder poking the ball back into the danger zone for Pennington to head past Jamie Cumming.

Blackpool weren’t ahead for long, as Oxford quickly struck back in a similar fashion. Sam Long headed down from a corner into the path of Harris, who pounced on the opportunity to fire the ball into the back of the net from close-range.

The U’s nearly edged their way in front before the break, but were denied by a superb block by Marvin Ekpiteta, with the centre back throwing his body on the line to stop a certain goal.

Following the restart, the Seasiders were once again on the front foot. Kyle Joseph was denied a couple of times by Cumming, with the latter of the two being a superb save from a headed attempt.

Heading into the final quarter of the match, a triple change saw George Byers come on for his debut in Tangerine, following his Deadline Day loan move from Sheffield Wednesday.

The best chance of the second half came the way of Billy Bodin in the 86th minute, with the substitute hitting the back post with free header when he should’ve been scoring.

Blackpool FC: Dan Grimshaw, Matthew Pennington, Marvin Ekpiteta, James Husband, Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel (72’), Ollie Norburn (72’), Albie Morgan, Hayden Coulson (90’), Karamoko Dembele, Shayne Lavery (72’), Kyle Joseph.

Substitutes: Richard O’Donnell, George Byers (72’), Matty Virtue, Olly Casey, CJ Hamilton (72’), Andy Lyons (90’), Kylian Kouassi (72’).