Nigel Pearson claims his Bristol City side should have been 'out of sight' before Blackpool's late equaliser

Shayne Lavery came off the bench to rescue the Seasiders a point with virtually the last kick of the game.

Bristol City had earlier gone a goal ahead in the first-half through Chris Martin's header and had chances to extend their lead.

But Neil Critchley's men fought back towards the end to pick up a point on their opening day of the Championship campaign.

"Football is always going to surprise or remind you of the difficulties of getting over the line," Pearson told Bristol City's official website.

"The reality is we should have been out of sight, but we weren't.

"We've paid the price for maybe a bit of miscommunication at the end and not being clinical.

"As Aston Villa showed us in the friendly last week, even if you have a few chances you need to put teams to bed.

"Today, we could have been out of sight at half-time, we had some really good chances but spurned them. We've paid the price at the end, but that's football.

"For the most part, I was pretty pleased with how we approached the game. We were the better team, so that's life.

"Yes it would have been great to get off to the perfect start and for our fans it would have been a reward for getting back into Ashton Gate. But unfortunately it didn't play out like that.

"Conceding so late in the game, it puts a different slant on things but that's the beauty of sport, it takes you to hell and back.

"I feel for the players and the fans they didn't get the result they deserved, but we'll be okay.

"I'm afraid it's life, you have to get on with it."

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