Bowyer hopes to end Blackpool's spot of bother in final two games

Gary Bowyer hopes Blackpool can put their penalty hoodoo to bed in their remaining two games of the season.
Jay Spearing's penalty at Gillingham strikes a post   Picture: CameraSportJay Spearing's penalty at Gillingham strikes a post   Picture: CameraSport
Jay Spearing's penalty at Gillingham strikes a post Picture: CameraSport

Don’t miss the latest football news and gossip from leagues in England, Scotland and Europe with footballwire.co.ukBowyer’s Seasiders have been awarded just two spot- kicks all season: against Southend United back in September and at Gillingham on Saturday.

Both were missed and their miserable penalty record isn’t confined to this season.

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Pool have missed eight of their last 12 penalties in league action, the last successful one taken by Mark Cullen in the first leg of last season’s play-off semi-final against Luton Town.

Four games prior to that, loanee Jordan Flores had scored the only goal against Doncaster Rovers, a crucial winner that kept the Seasiders in the hunt for the play-offs. Flores’ stoppage-time goal came after Cullen had missed an 88th minute penalty.

Blackpool’s penalty misses didn’t prove too costly last season or this but it’s still something Bowyer wants to work on.

The Pool boss said: “Terry McPhillips, the assistant, said (before Saturday’s game) we’d get a penalty and I stupidly said, ‘Yes, but that does not necessarily mean we’ll score it’.

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“So if you want the Lottery numbers, they are… But no, in all seriousness, Jay (Spearing) has come in and said sorry. He’s hit the post and it happens.

“It’s a good job there are only two games left because I don’t think I could go through what we went through last year.

“We’ve had two this season and the two who took them (Spearing and Jimmy Ryan) are probably the two most technically-gifted players we’ve got but they both missed.

“Both were in this neck of the woods as well (the south-east), so hopefully we can get one in north and someone might be able to score it.”

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Spearing’s miss proved irrelevant as the Seasiders strolled to their fourth straight win 3-0 courtesy of goals from Kyle Vassell, Nathan Delfouneso and Kelvin Mellor.

Bowyer added: “I’m delighted with the goals we scored but we always score good goals.

“In the first half I enjoyed watching us; second half it was painful and it shouldn’t have been.

“We spoke at half-time about concentrating, doing the basics and making it simpler for ourselves but we went and did the exact opposite.

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“Missing the penalty gave them a massive lift. It gave the crowd a massive lift and we had to dig in.

“But at the end of the day, we’ve scored three away from home and kept a clean sheet, so I’m obviously delighted.”