Neil Critchley makes prediction on Blackpool scorer against Nottingham Forest following difficult period

The Seasiders raced to a two goal lead at the City Ground, before Nuno Espírito Santo’s pulled themselves level through Nicolas Dominguez and Morgan Gibbs-White- setting up a replay at Bloomfield Road.

Blackpool boss Neil Critchley was delighted to see Lawrence-Gabriel enjoy a special moment against his youth team- and hopes the wing-back can continue to impress following a difficult period.

“It’s been stop-start for him through no fault of his own,” he said.

“He was out for about six months through injury, but we’re hopeful he can get over that. If we can keep him fit and build a rhythm of games then we’re hoping he can be an important player for us in the second half of the season.

"Jordan has been struggling. He lost a lot of weight over Christmas because he’s been really ill. He was tiring a little bit at the end, like a lot of the players.

“He defended brilliantly against (Callum) Hudson-Odoi and (Nicolas) Dominguez. Considering he has been out, for him to last the whole game was terrific.

"He popped up in the penalty box, and I can assure you we didn’t work on that at all, but it was a great header. Football has a funny way of throwing up ex-players scoring against their former teams, but I didn’t expect him to- I didn’t pick him to get a goal.

"I would’ve been doing a lap of the City Ground if it had been me, but (not celebrating against his former club) is entirely up to him.”

The Seasiders quickly doubled their lead at the City Ground, with Albie Morgan finishing from a CJ Hamilton cross for the second.

"It was a great goal,” he added.

"It was something we had planned, with CJ (Hamilton) breaking into the space. He got down the side of the box, and produced a brilliant cross. Albie (Morgan) broke from midfield and it’s a terrific goal, and at that point you’re just hoping you can get to half time, but they produced a quality cross and a great header to get back into the game.”