'Never gave up' - Steve Bruce shares immediate reaction to Blackpool's victory over Cambridge

As they looked to build on their 3-0 win over Barnsley at the weekend, the Seasiders soon found themselves on the back foot, with former loanee Dom Ballard scoring an earlier opener.

It didn’t take too long for Ashley Fletcher to level the scores with his ninth goal of the season, before Sonny Carey completed the turnaround, building on his brace from Saturday afternoon.

The latest victory cuts down the gap between Blackpool and the top six down to nine points, with 10 games remaining this season.

Reflecting on the win over Cambridge, Bruce said: “We didn’t play that well, but we did enough. We got through it and showed a bit of resilience.

“We made far too many mistakes as far as I’m concerned, but they never gave up, and that showed again today.

“At this time of year, it’s about how you get over the line and finding a way to win, and we’ve not done that often enough at home. Maybe we’re starting to grind out a few results. If we’re going to do anything, we need to stay with it.

“We did enough to win, that’s the best way to put it. After an awful start, it took a little bit of resilience from them - which we’ve seen in abundance.

“It was difficult, we took longer than I would’ve liked to recover from the bizarre own goal. How the linesman can give it from 60 yards away is debatable, but we got through it and won it.

“That’s the magic of football, we’ve probably played better at home on numerous occasions and drawn. We knew Cambridge would be spirited and they made it very difficult, especially in the first half; in the second we were the better team and did enough to win.

“It took a huge bit of quality to get us our first goal, then Sonny (Carey) has been popping up lately, and it was no surprise to see him smash it into the net.

“It’s good to win, but let’s put it behind us and see how we do at the weekend. We’ll keep bashing away because you never know. We’re not going to give up, we’ve got some big games coming up.

“Saturday is a big game, against a decent side. Hopefully we can play well, we will need the supporters to come out and give their support.”