'They had no bearing on the victory': Neil Critchley discusses Charlton's red cards during Blackpool's impressive win

The Seasiders were already leading 2-0 by the time Lee Bowyer’s side were reduced to 10 men at the beginning of the second-half when Darren Pratley was shown a second yellow card.

The Charlton skipper was sent his marching orders following an off-the-ball incident with Pool right-back Jordan Gabriel.

Critchley’s men soon capitalised on their one-man advantage, with Jerry Yates scoring his second penalty of the game to make it 3-0.

That’s how the scoreline remained for the rest of the match, with Charlton ending the encounter with nine men after Chuks Aneke was shown a straight red late on for an elbow on Dan Ballard.

Charlton boss Bowyer bemoaned the decisions of Brett Huxtable post-match, but Critchley felt they had little influence on the end result.

“I said to the players at the end of the game, the way the game petered out at the end when they’re down to 10 and nine men and we were keeping the ball, it’s easy to think the sending offs had a real bearing on the victory. It didn’t,” Critchley told The Gazette.

“At the beginning of the season, we were down to 10 men in certain games and nine men and we showed a real togetherness and a real spirit.

“Charlton was obviously one of those games and there’s AFC Wimbledon away as well. We played with real spirit in those games and we’re getting the rewards for that now.

“I don’t think the referee had much choice with the decisions. Perhaps the second penalty (they could argue against)? But I thought it was a clumsy challenge.

“The first penalty was a definite penalty and the sending offs, we had a couple like that against Wimbledon that went against us and maybe it’s about time some of those decisions go for us.”

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