Michael Appleton reveals Blackpool disappointment at only drawing against Burnley

The Lancashire rivals played out an enthralling derby at Turf Moor as the Seasiders came back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3.

Prior to two red cards six minutes from time, one for either side, Appleton’s men had the Clarets on the ropes and sensed a remarkable first away win against Burnley since 1998.

But the Seasiders had to endure a tense EIGHT minutes of stoppage-time, where they showed guts for the second time in four days to claim a well-earned point.

“I think we should have won, there’s no doubt about that,” Appleton said afterwards.

“I’d be surprised if the most ardent of Burnley fans disagreed with that one.

“After the way we started, from a defensive point of view, whether it be us as a back four or five as a unit or individually, there were a couple of mistakes in there. We can be and we need to be better in the early parts of games.

“It will be easy for us to focus too much on that. It’s certainly something we need to address and we will do.

“But I think the way we responded once we dusted ourselves down, you’ve got to give the players real credit for the way they played in the second-half.

“There’s a lot of pride there. Sometimes you have those moments in the early part of your tenure as a manager when you get to find out a little bit about your players.

“After the disappointment of last Saturday, to concede as late as we did and playing ever so well against Swansea, to show the reaction in midweek against QPR and then to have to deal with being 3-1 down to Burnley and come back…the chances we created today, we could have won three or four games. And they were good chances as well.

“There’s a little bit of frustration in the dressing room because the players knew they had them on the ropes and you can tell with the reaction of their crowd.

“When we both went down to 10 men, it probably helped them more than us.”