Defeat to Derby County 'epitomises' Blackpool's season, according to Neil Critchley

The Seasiders were the better side for the majority of the game in their final outing on home turf.

But they squandered a number of chances, the main one falling to Gary Madine who had a first-half penalty saved.

Wayne Rooney’s side took full advantage, as they netted twice in the final 20 minutes to steal victory in front of their jubilant 4,000 away fans.

It was a disappointing way to end what has been a fantastic first season back in the Championship in front of their biggest attendance of the campaign.

“When you get a crowd like we got today, you want to give them a day to remember, some goals and a win and unfortunately we’ve not been able to do that,” Critchley said.

“It doesn’t change my opinion of the season as a whole, I think we’ve had a very good season, but unfortunately today we’ve not been able to get the three points.

“Again, maybe this game epitomised our season a little bit. I thought we were the better team, we were on top but we didn’t take our chances and the two goals we conceded were really poor.

“Gary is normally very good with penalties, his record is very good, but it can happen. The keeper has pulled off a very good save.

“We’ve created other decent chances in the game and the keeper has pulled off some other good saves. We’ve had plenty of moments in and around the final third.

“They’ve not really been near our goal at all. In the first-half they had a couple of shots outside the box but in the second-half, we’re in their half, we’re comfortable and you’re thinking we just need to score here.

“We gifted them the first goal and the second one from the free-kick is really poor defending.

“I’m obviously disappointed to lose, but over the course of 45 games I think we can be pleased with our efforts this season.”

Despite the result, Critchley remained fairly satisfied with how his side performed up until the final third.

“You have to earn that against Derby because they play good football and try and build things up,” he added.

“We weren’t as aggressive as I would have liked in the first-half, I thought we were a little bit passive.

“We said at half-time just to go for it. If we get it wrong, we get it wrong. There’s a risk attached to that obviously and sometimes they broke the press a little bit and got through us, but we recovered.

“But as I say, I don’t think they had a shot and we won the ball back a lot. We were in the ascendancy a lot in the second-half, we just couldn’t score. That final little bit eluded us.

“The goals we gave away were really poor and I suppose if you summed the whole season up, these things can happen in moments but they’ve happened too often this season.”