Bowyer hails Blackpool win despite another striker blow

Bowyer’s men trailed at half-time to Jamie Proctor’ header but took the lead with two goals in five minutes from Kelvin Mellor and Brad Potts.

Blackpool looked to have weathered the League One side’s attempted fightback but Kaiyne Woolery levelled deep in injury time to take the Bloomfield Road tie into extra- time.

But Pool found an extra gear after the introduction of John Herron, who teed-up Jim McAlister and then scored himself with a sublime chip after some slick play by Potts.

It was Pool’s first win in the League Cup since 2009 but Jamille Matt was forced off with a knee injury just 17 minutes into his first start.

Fellow strikers Kyle Vassell (hip) and Danny Philliskirk (ankle) both missed last night’s game after sustaining injuries in Saturday’s win over Exeter.

And with Jack Redshaw also out, Bowyer was left with only one recognised striker in Mark Cullen. But Pool did the business, even when Cullen was withdrawn.

Bowyer could dip into the transfer market. He said: “Back-to-back wins and no injuries would be the best start.

“Jamille is not great if I’m honest. It is a bit early to assess fully but it is disappointing.

“I brought Jamille and Kyle Vassell to give us five strikers, but we are four down at the moment. It is something we will have to address and see if we need to bring bodies in.”

But the Blackpool boss was pleased with his side’s performance as many of his men dug deep to play 120 minutes.

He said: “It was a very pleasing night from our point of view. I thought there was a great atmosphere – obviously great travelling support from Bolton and our supporters were magnificent. They helped us massively to get over the line.

“I think if that (Herron’s goal) was scored in the Premier League it would be played over and over again. It was a wonderful bit of skill.

“We’ve even got Jim McAlister on the scoresheet but again John did ever so well with that one.

“I can’t heap enough praise on them because they had every right to feel sorry for themselves and they didn’t. In an ideal world we would have been home 30 minutes earlier.

“Brad Potts had to run miles but we would be doing a disservice to everybody else by picking someone out because the organisation, character and spirit were fantastic.”

Bowyer shifted shape to a 5-3-2 wing-back formation and soon pushed Potts up behind Cullen after Matt’s injury.

He said: “We only did one training session with the shape we wanted to play. The players took it on board and all the praise is to them tonight.”