Relief for Neil Critchley as Blackpool get back to winning ways against Peterborough United

Late goals from Sonny Carey and Jerry Yates secured a crucial comeback win for the Seasiders, who were without a victory in their last seven games heading into today’s encounter at Bloomfield Road.

But Carey came off the bench to put Critchley’s side in front with his first goal in tangerine in the 86th minute, before Yates made sure of the points in stoppage time.

Keshi Anderson had earlier levelled after Sikiri Dembele gave Darren Ferguson’s side an early lead.

Not only are Blackpool back to winning ways after three straight defeats, they’re also back in the goals having failed to find the back of the net in six-and-a-half hours of football prior to today’s vital triumph.

“It’s a nice moment, there was a bit of relief there,” Critchley told The Gazette on the end of his side’s goal drought.

“But I’ve got an enormous amount of faith in these players and what we’ve got in the dressing room.

“This week we had a couple of good meetings and conversations and spoke about a few things and the training was excellent.

“I was confident the players would come and perform on Saturday, but we did it the hard way because we went 1-0 down but we still responded, came back and played some good football.

“The spirit and the togetherness and the will to go to the end is never in question.”

The win takes Blackpool back up into the top half of the table, 11 points clear of Posh in the bottom three.

It was a crucial win for the Seasiders, as a fourth straight defeat would have cut the deficit to the relegation zone to just five points at the halfway stage.

But Blackpool battled to the end and got their rewards late on during a game that wasn’t always the most pleasing on the eye.

“I thought we started a bit tentatively, which was maybe to be expected given the run we’ve been on,” Critchley said.

“But I thought the players showed real bravery to play, scored at a good time when we were on top and that gave them a lift.

“We were the team in the ascendancy in the first-half, but in the second-half with Peterborough’s diamond and their good players in the middle of the pitch they got control of the game.

“But our goalkeeper has had nothing to do really in the whole game, other than the first goal.

“We made a couple of subs and thankfully they’ve come on and won us the game.

“We’ve had a good week of training. The players have been fantastic, the spirit they’ve shown, their energy and their commitment has been outstanding and I’m just delighted they got their rewards at the end of the week.”

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