Simon Grayson says Blackpool must find answers after back-to-back defeats

The Seasiders, as they did in their previous game against Shrewsbury Town on Saturday, squandered a number of chances before being hit by the sucker punch late on.

Sides continue to sit deep at Bloomfield Road, knowing they are able to frustrate the hosts before capitalising on the break.

Manager Grayson said: “The goalkeeper has barely had a save to make but we’ve not asked enough questions to go and win the game.

“It was a bit of a scrappy game. I thought we started it really well on the front foot, but it’s all about getting that early goal, isn’t it?

“That’s especially the case when you’re the home team and teams are trying to hit you on the counter-attack.

“It’s happened on Saturday and again with this game.

“We’ve got to find ways of winning football matches, whether we’re at home and teams are making it difficult for us or away from home.

“We’ve not shown enough quality in our decision-making and not asked enough questions of the opposition.

“The keeper has made a couple of good saves from set-pieces and we’ve had a couple of other things.

“But we’ve got to be better with the ball at the top end of the pitch.”

The Boxing Day defeat made it back-to-back losses for the Seasiders, who failed to score in either game.

“I’m not going to say it’s a massive concern but of course you don’t like losing any matches, and losing them back-to-back while not scoring goals,” Grayson added.

“We’ve done okay in the last two games, both of which we started really well.

“But we haven’t managed to get goals while we’ve been on top and that’s played its part.

“But you’ve got to find different ways of getting results and we’ve not been able to do that.

“We an’t fault the effort. The lads have run around and given it a go, but it’s just that final third where we need to be clever in what we do. It’s something we need to sort out.”

It could have been a different story had a linesman’s decision gone their way in a first-half, when Pool were looking bright and in charge of proceedings.

But Sullay Kaikai’s close-range effort was belatedly ruled out for offside, despite replays showing it was incredibly tight.

But unlike the Shrewsbury game, in which the Seasiders were denied a clear penalty, Grayson refused to use the decision as an excuse.

“What I’ve heard from the analyst is that the picture doesn’t really make it any clearer for us,” Grayson said.

“It’s another tough, close call for us as that first goal would have been vital.”