'It's hard to take' admits Blackpool boss following FA Cup heartbreak for the spirited Seasiders against Nottingham Forest

The visitors had taken a two goal lead at Bloomfield Road, with Andrew Omobamidele opening the scoring during the first half, before Danilo doubled their lead shortly after the break. After being at fault in the build-up to Forest’s second goal, Albie Morgan made amends for his error with a superb strike- before substitute Kyle Joseph headed the Seasiders level.

At the City Ground it had been the Premier League outfit that had come from two-goals down, which prompted the replay. In the rematch there could be no draw, with an extra half an hour required, during which time Chris Wood was able to score the deciding goal.

"To go all that way and not to have anything to show for it is hard to take,” Critchley said.

"Over the course of the 120 minutes you couldn’t really tell the difference between the two teams. We went and had a real go to make it an exciting cup tie. The atmosphere was fantastic. To come from 2-0 down showed spirit and quality, but I’m bitterly disappointed that we didn’t even take it to penalties and make it even more exciting than it already was.

“We started the game well, but then we had a little warning from their first corner- we didn’t defend it as well as we could’ve done. To give them one like that was like a free goal, but our response after that was very good, and I felt we were the better team in the first half.

"Our message at half was about playing to the conditions and playing forward, but we didn’t do that at the start and they punished us for that mistake.

"At 2-0 heads could’ve easily dropped, but we came back and had a chance to win it with Kaddy (Karamoko Dembele).

"We should take confidence from it. We tried to play a different game to what we did away from, taking a risk by going on the front foot. We forced them to play a game they didn’t want to. I loved the performance and the cup tie- we’ve done the competition proud.”

Blackpool’s second half substitutes proved to have a positive impact after coming on- with goalscorer Joseph being among those.

"I was delighted for Kyle, he was a real handful when he came on,” Critchley added.

“The front three provided a different proposition for the Forest defence. They caused them real problems, got us back in the game, and nearly won us it.”