'A decisive moment changed everything': Neil Critchley rues James Husband's red card in Blackpool's inexplicable defeat to Lincoln City

Neil Critchley was left to rue a decisive moment five minutes from time that proved to be the catalyst for Blackpool’s inexplicable 3-2 defeat to Lincoln City.

With 84 minutes on the clock, Demetri Mitchell scrambled home from close range to restore Blackpool’s lead.

It came after Jorge Grant’s penalty cancelled out CJ Hamilton’s opener in a bright first-half display from Critchley’s men.

But, shortly after Mitchell made it 2-1 to Pool, James Husband was shown a straight red card for bringing Brennan Johnson down in the penalty area.

Grant converted his and his side’s second spot kick of the game, before Lewis Montsma scored Lincoln’s winner two minutes from time.

“Just when you think you’ve done enough to win the game, a decisive moment changes everything,” Critchley said.

“I thought we played very well in the first half. We were the team on the front foot, we were much more attacking than we were at Gillingham last week and scored a good goal.

“I suppose what has cost us is mistakes and individual errors.

“I think we lost our way a little bit in the second half but we stuck at it and that moment where Demi scored, we deserved something like that to drop to us because we’ve not had any of those moments in the previous games.

“At that point you think ‘okay, we’ve not played particularly well in the second half but we deserve that’. We needed to stick together and see the game out but we’ve not done it.

“The most disappointing aspect is that when you go 2-2, even with 10 men you shouldn’t lose the game. You should still get a draw out of it. We didn’t do that and that was very hard to take.”

Barely 60 seconds between Blackpool’s second goal and Lincoln’s equaliser, which was a hugely frustrating moment for the Seasiders.

“It’s that old football saying that you’re most vulnerable after scoring and that’s what happened,” Critchley added.

“It’s just a lack of concentration, a genuine mistake which we’ve been punished for.

“We’ve just got to stick to what we’re doing, keep believing in what we’re doing because I’ve still got plenty of belief in the group and the squad.

“It’s not been the start we wanted, but it’s four games and we’ve got 42 to go. I’m confident the results will turn in our favour.”

Despite a strong first-half showing, Blackpool weren’t at the races in the second period.

Critchley’s changes failed to have their desired impact either, Luke Garbutt, Oliver Sarkic and MJ Williams all struggling to get in the game.

But Critchley defended his subs, stating they were introduced into the action at a difficult point in the game.

When asked if the changes failed to have an impact, Pool’s head coach told The Gazette: “No I don’t think so, I think they came into a difficult period in the game. The game changes massively on certain incidents.

“We win together, we lose together, it’s the whole squad. I’ll have to go away and look at that, I don’t think it was anything to do with that today.”