Steve Bruce shares praise for ex-Southampton man after wonder strike helps Blackpool progress in EFL Trophy

With the help of a bonus point after a 5-4 win on penalties, the Seasiders book their place in the next round as Group E winners.

At one stage, it looked as if the Fylde Coast were heading out following goals from Eno Nto and Warren Burrell, before a Jordan Rhodes header and a dipping volley from Ryan Finnigan pulled them level.

After the match, Bruce shared praise for the Southampton midfielder, as well as for the manner of how his side responded on the back of their 3-0 defeat to Leyton Orient in League One at the weekend.

“The way we were on Saturday wasn’t us and I didn’t enjoy watching us - and I don’t think the players enjoyed it either,” he said

“You need a response. Unfortunately we were 2-0 down, but we’ve dug ourselves out of a hole. We were unlucky, but we needed to keep performing and keep at it, and we got our reward.

“There was a bit of resilience, but to be fair I don’t think we deserved to be getting beat 2-0, we had two or three really good chances in the first half and we didn’t take them, and they had two shots at our goal and scored, which is the way it’s going for us at the moment.

“We showed a bit of fight, and once we got a goal, I was always thinking we had a chance. What an equaliser it was, Ryan won’t forget that for a long time.

“We know he’s got a bit of talent, and he’s had a tough time with injury, but he’s got all the bits we’ve seen. He’s only a young player, so you’ve got to take your time with them, and making sure he recovers from his injuries is the big one. He’s put himself forward in pole position to play on Saturday, which is great for him.

“Then goalscorers like Jordan want to score, and he’s not had many opportunities, but it was a good finish; a clever finish - how often have we seen that, if you put balls in the box there’s not many better around than him. It was good to see him score.”