Bowyer: Blackpool must back up Wigan win

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The Seasiders earned their first win in six with a superb display at the league leaders Wigan Athletic, picking up the three points thanks to goals from Armand Gnanduillet and Kelvin Mellor.

Pool now take on Peterborough United on Sunday, due to Preston North End playing at home the previous day, and Bowyer has called on his players to pick up another priceless three points in their bid to stay in the division.

“We’ve had to stick together in recent weeks, we’ve had to deal with adversity off the pitch,” he said.

“But we’ve kept working, we’ve kept believing, and if you do that, you get your rewards.

“What we have to do now is enjoy this victory, because it’s been a while since they’ve had a win, but then they’ve got to get their heads back on it for Sunday.

“It’s important we try and back this up now.

“It’s not often we’ve been two goals ahead so we were in new territory on Tuesday.

“The back four have taken some stick and committed some errors of late and it’s cost us, so to come here and keep a clean sheet will do them ever so good.

“I thought everybody just ran their socks off.”

Blackpool had to do without Kyle Vassell as Bowyer opted to rest his top scorer as he continues his return from a lengthy lay-off.

But the striker wasn’t to be missed as his replacement, Gnanduillet, found the back of the net for the second game running.

Bowyer said: “We know it’s a difficult one with Kyle and how he’s been, so we knew we had to be sensible with him.

“He’s had three games back now so we’ll just see how he goes for the rest of the week.

“But big Armand was outstanding. It’s a great game for him because he proved what he’s capable of when he plays his size.

“I thought the way he’s had to contend with their two big centre-halves, he was fantastic.”