Doubts over the referee influenced Neil Critchley's decision to withdraw Ellis Simms halfway through Blackpool's win against Portsmouth

Neil Critchley decided to bring Ellis Simms off halfway through Blackpool’s win against Portsmouth because he couldn’t be sure the referee “was going to make the right decisions”.

The striker was withdrawn at half-time at Fratton Park on Saturday after picking up a yellow card during the opening 45 minutes.

Referee Sam Allison brandished a yellow card after the Everton loanee was involved in an innocuous challenge with Portsmouth defender Sean Raggett.

In first-half stoppage-time, Raggett’s centre-back partner Rasmus Nicolaisen went to ground theatrically as Simms sprinted to charge down a clearance.

As a result, Critchley opted to withdrawn Simms from the heat of battle, replacing him with Demetri Mitchell - freeing Sullay Kaikai to play in a more advanced central role off Yates.

When asked to explain Simms’ substitution, Critchley said: “It’s because he had been booked in the first-half, very harshly so in my opinion.

“Then there was a foul after that and they start to make a few sounds to the referee and try and get in his ear.

“I wasn’t sure the referee was going to continue to make the right decisions all the time regarding Ellis.

“He’s only young and all it takes is one moment or a bit of inexperience and we could have been down to 10 men.

“So we decided to bring him off at half-time and I thought we started to get more of a foothold in the game.

“We had some good passages of possession and play and Sullay was beginning to give them more of a different problem overloading them in the middle of the pitch.

“I thought Demi was good when he came on, he was lively and positive. Elliot (Embleton) made a difference when he came on as well.

“I was really proud of every single one of them.”

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