Grant Ward hoping his first competitive goal for Blackpool in weekend draw at Crewe will be the first of many for the Seasiders

The 25-year-old equalised for the Seasiders at Gresty Road on Saturday, slamming home a powerful shot after Gary Madine’s initial effort had been blocked.

Ward, who signed for Blackpool in December 2019, was delighted to finally get on the scoresheet but was disappointed his strike didn’t lead to a much-needed victory.

“You always want to get that first one,” Ward admitted.

“I didn’t play too much last season but I’ve got it under my belt now, so hopefully I can get a few more.

“My goal is something we’ve worked on in training, getting around Gaz because we know he’s good in the box and will get a lot of knockdowns, so I just stayed behind him.

“I think he went for a bit of a backheel, I don’t know what he was thinking there! But I just got behind it and thankfully I got good contact on my shot.

“We dominated after that, we went for the win. I think you can tell we weren’t happy to settle for the draw. We know they’re a good team but we wanted to win the game. Unfortunately we just couldn’t manage it.”

Crewe’s goal just after half-time came very much against the run of play, Mikael Mandron steering home from close range with his side’s only shot on target of the encounter.

“It’s one of those things, it’s happened to us quite a few times this season. We’ve been on top and then they’ve hit us on the counter,” Ward added.

“I think the boys battled on and eventually got a goal, deservedly so as well.

“We didn’t put our heads down, we kept going. We always knew we’d get chances and thankfully we got the goal, but next time we want the win.

“We dominated the game and I think we should have won.”

Pool’s draw against Crewe brought an end to their run of three straight defeats ahead of this week’s Bloomfield Road double-header.

Neil Critchley’s side welcome Charlton Athletic to the Fylde coast on Tuesday night before taking on MK Dons at home next weekend.

“Even though the fans aren’t there it’s a familiar place for us,” Ward said.

“If we can take the momentum from the Crewe game then we should get a good result on Tuesday night.

“We’re in on Sunday, we’ll do a bit of a recovery session and the boys that didn’t play will do a bit of training.

“We’ll be ready for Tuesday.”