'We weren't second best': Neil Critchley offers surprise take on Blackpool's heavy defeat to Nottingham Forest

The Seasiders were given a harsh lesson by Steve Cooper’s side, who eased to a 4-1 win in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

Forest were in clinical form in the first-half, scoring all three of their shots on target - two coming from the excellent Brennan Johnson.

The home side responded at the start of the second-half but they were unable to get a goal back, before Forest eventually added a fourth late on.

Substitute Callum Connolly bagged a late consolation for the Seasiders but by then the damage had already been done.

“I’m disappointed with the result, but not the performance,” Critchley said.

“I thought we more than matched a really good team all the way through. We played some really good football but we didn’t get any luck in the game.

“In the end, we got a harsh lesson of what Championship football is all about. They were very clinical but they had some luck in their goals as well.

“But we had big moments, big chances, but it didn’t go our way. But we still went right until the end and deservedly got a goal and that’s the spirit we’ve got in the dressing room.

“For large periods, I actually enjoyed watching us play. But we’ve been punished today.

“Nearly everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. It’s a deflected goal for the first goal, a mistake for the third goal, we had big moments at 3-0 to get back into it after half-time but they then get a fourth, we end up with 10 men after making it 4-1 having made three subs.

“It was just one of those days. It can happen.”

Despite a nightmare first-half, Blackpool actually played fairly well in the opening 45 minutes and were causing Forest plenty of problems.

But despite winning the ball back on a fairly regular basis, their quality in the final third was found wanting.

Critchley added: “I thought we started the game well, our response to going one goal down was very good, Gary (Madine) had a header…

“I’ve not seen the stats or the shot count, but I’d imagine it’s very similar. I don’t think there was much difference between the two teams. If anything, I thought we were the better team for large periods.

“But what decides games is what happens in both penalty areas and they were better than us in both boxes.”

Rather than chastise his players at the interval, Critchley opted to lend his support.

“It’s a difficult one because I actually felt at half-time we had played alright,” he said.

“It’s easy to be despondent, lose your temper, change the shape and bring players off, but we felt the players did alright.

“They needed a bit of support and belief in what they were doing and we said ‘give it 15 minutes and let’s see what happens’.

“CJ (Hamilton) had a big chance after half-time, Kenny (Dougall) had one that deflected wide, we might have had a penalty.

“At that point if it goes 3-1, who knows what happens? But it didn’t and the game evens itself out, they score on the break with a real quality goal again, a real clinical finish. That can happen.

“But I’ve got no issues with the way we played today.”