Lumley shines in shutout for Blackpool boss Bowyer

Joe Lumley keeps Bristol Rovers at bay on his home debut

READ MORE Blackpool 0 Bristol Rovers 0: Five things we learned

The Queens Park Rangers loanee was handed his league debut for the Seasiders in Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Bristol Rovers

The 22-year-old was given little to do in a quiet first half but made three vital stops in the closing stages to ensure Pool didn’t suffer a sixth defeat in eight home outings.

Blackpool, who last kept a clean sheet at home in the 0-0 draw against Rochdale on September 26, remain without a win at Bloomfield Road since October.

But a point was better than none for the Seasiders and Bowyer was happy to see his new charge perform so well.

“I was delighted for Joe,” he said. “It was a tough call and I felt for Christoffer (Mafoumbi) when I had to tell him he was going to be on the bench.

“He’s done well for us and he will do well for us, in the ong-term especially.

“Joe didn’t have much to do in the first half. Second half he had a couple of saves to make and he showed what a good goalkeeper he’s going to be.

“The concentration levels for goalkeepers are massive and when he rushed out I thought he could have stayed in his goal.

“But after that he dealt with a corner and a double save and then a strike from Tom Nichols.

“It’s important when you get knocked out of your stride a little bit, as we did second half, that you keep a clean sheet and we’ve done that.

“Recent weeks we haven’t done that and you’ve seen the opposition go and nick it, so I’m glad we started 2018 at home in a different way.

“It was a battling game. I thought we came out first half and did ever so well in terms of how we played.

“We tried a new system and it worked for us, although the principles were exactly the same.

“We just didn’t quite have enough care first half.

“Second half we’ve got to give credit to Bristol Rovers because they nullified our new shape.

“Then for us, when you’re not as fluent it’s important to keep the back door shut and keep a clean sheet, and we managed to do that.

“You look at the opportunity of the two v one, where you have Sessi (D’Almeida) and Nathan (Delfouneso) break but Sessi just overruns it.

“I think we’ve played well. We did well in patches and played our football but we just lacked that care in the final third.

“There was a great shout for a penalty, which I’ve looked back at and I don’t know how it’s not been given.

“But we’ve only had one penalty this season, so it’s probably not surprised me that much.”