'This can't be the story of our season': Neil Critchley reacts to Blackpool's late defeat to 10-man QPR

Neil Critchley says he doesn’t want Blackpool’s failure to hold onto results to become the story of their season.
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QPR 2-1 Blackpool: Last minute goal sees Neil Critchley's side slump to desperat...

It comes after his Blackpool side slumped to a desperate defeat to 10-man QPR after conceding at the death once again.

The Seasiders looked to have savaged themselves a point when Josh Bowler equalised eight minutes from time.

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Critchley’s men had a man advantage for 50 minutes of the game following Dion Sanderson’s headbutt on Reece James.

But QPR, who took a first-half lead through Jimmy Dunne, snatched the win at the death courtesy of substitute Luke Amos.

It was an inexplicable end to what was a poor night from the Seasiders, who were surprisingly off colour and lackadaisical even when it was 11 v 11.

“It was a painful end and it’s happened too many times to us this season,” Critchley said.

The Seasiders failed to take advantage of having an extra man for 50 minutes following Dion Sanderson's headbutt on Reece JamesThe Seasiders failed to take advantage of having an extra man for 50 minutes following Dion Sanderson's headbutt on Reece James
The Seasiders failed to take advantage of having an extra man for 50 minutes following Dion Sanderson's headbutt on Reece James
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“We’ve had games where we should have drawn, but have lost, and games we should have won but drawn.

“In the first-half I thought it was pretty uneventful really. We were comfortable in the game, they hadn’t really threatened the goal or had a shot. We hadn’t either.

“We looked threatening on the counter without producing anything, so to be 1-0 down due to a corner was bitterly disappointing.

“The sending off changes the game. We obviously had the ball in the second half and at times lacked intelligence with what we were doing.

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“The players are an honest group, they give everything. We get an equaliser and the momentum is with us. We tried to push to win the game, we have one or two opportunities, we don’t get any luck and there’s a moment of misfortune and we lose.

“This feeling keeps occurring and I don’t want it to be the story of our season. We’re nearly there, but if we want to improve we’ve got to take something from this game tonight.

“We have to take at least a point but we haven’t and that’s happened too many times this season.”

The game ought to have spun on its head when the home side, who sit third in the Championship table, were reduced to 10 men.

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But Critchley says it’s not always as straight-forward as that when you have a one-man advantage.

“You don’t prepare to play against 10 men, but you know it can happen. It’s happened to us this season where we’ve played with 10 men and we know how difficult it is,” he said.

“They put 10 men behind the ball and it’s not easy, particularly when it’s 1-0 and they have something to hold onto.

“The game changed. We had the ball and we weren’t making the best use of the ball we had. We didn’t threaten the goal enough with our play.

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“We still had some decent chances and I don’t think anyone would have argued we didn’t deserve a point from the game. To take nothing is extremely disappointing.”

The Seasiders had chances to win the game before QPR’s late goal, substitute Gary Madine coming agonisingly close to meeting two late crosses.

While Critchley was understandably disappointed to lose so late on, he doesn’t want to be the type of boss that sits back and sees out the remainder of a game.

“We want to be a team that never settles for a point, we want to go for it,” he said.

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“We’re against 10 men, we’ve just scored and we’ve got the momentum and we had them pinned back in their own half, so we felt we could win the game.

“We had a couple of chances and that’s where you need a bit of luck or quality we didn’t quite provide.

“We can’t lose the game though, we can’t concede a second goal like we did so the least we should be coming away with is a point.

“If you look at the last three games, we’ve got a point when in my opinion it should be at least five points from those games.”

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