'Worst in a long time' - Steve Bruce issues immediate reaction to Blackpool's draw with Wigan Athletic

Jon Mellish gave the home side an early lead, in what was a moment to forget for Everton loanee Harry Tyrer in the Seasiders goal, with the ball finding its way into the back of the net from an unlikely area.

The Seasiders levelled the scores during the second half, courtesy of a Lee Evans penalty, but Bruce believes a second spot kick should’ve been awarded heading into the latter stages of the contest.

“It’s the worst penalty decision I’ve seen in a long time,” the Blackpool head coach said.

“It’s as if the referee couldn’t give two penalties in one game. The second one was a bigger penalty than the first one. It’s a good job there’s nothing really on it other than three points takes us a little bit closer to where we want to get to.

“Enough said. We all smash into the fourth official - it’s not his fault, he can’t give it from where he is.

“How he doesn’t give it is beyond me, it’s a stonewall penalty for everyone in the ground, even their supporters would know they got away with one.”

Bruce’s issues thoughts on first half display

Prior to kick off, Blackpool’s unlikely hopes of reaching the play-offs had already been mathematically brought to an end following wins for both Leyton Orient and Reading.

Throughout the opening 45 minutes of the game against Wigan, the Seasiders looked like a team with nothing to play for, before showing more life after the break.

“We didn’t play well enough in the first half, and we gifted them a goal to give them a lift,” Bruce added.

“To be fair to Wigan, they’ve been on a little bit of a good run of late, so they’ve proven difficult to play against.

“I didn’t think we were anywhere near the intensity and it had a feel of an end of season game with nothing on it.

“In the second half, we thoroughly deserved to go on and win the game, we had a couple of good opportunities. It was more like us, we controlled the game very well.

“We needed to inject a bit of life and we did that. The switch of bringing (Tom) Bloxham on brought us a bit of energy and CJ (Hamilton) found a bit of space to get the penalty.

“They knew they had to play with a bit more intensity so I was pleased with our reaction.