Bowyer pleased by Pool players' high spirit level

Gary Bowyer is pleased by the mood among his Blackpool squad despite defeat at Luton Town last time out

The Seasiders lost their nine-game unbeaten streak in cruel circumstances last weekend when Ollie Palmer scored a last minute winner for Luton Town in Pool’s 1-0 defeat.

But Bowyer revealed the spirit among his players remains as high as it has been all season and he’s looking forward to seeing how they react when they return to Bloomfield Road this Saturday to face Grimsby Town.

“One thing we’ve done really well this season is we’ve always responded,” he said.

“The next time you see the lads come into training after a defeat it’s always interesting and it’s the first thing you look for in terms of their body language and how they are.

“When they came in there were one or two you had to get going a little bit but generally speaking they were good and their spirits were high.

“I have to say, this group have been terrific. So when they’ve come back into training this week we’ve had the music blaring for them, it’s lively and they’ve got their rubbish music playing in the dressing room.

“So the spirit has been good and they realised they played well against Luton. We probably played better and lost where the week before we played not as well and won.”

Bowyer’s men put in an impressive display at Kenilworth Road last weekend but came away empty handed after being thwarted by Hatters keeper Matt Macey on a number of occasions.

Conversely, the week before Blackpool had snatched all three points against Hartlepool despite not being at their best.

Bowyer added: “Long term it’s about the performances and we’ve got to take the load of positives we found from the analysis from Saturday forward and we’re already looking forward to the Grimsby game.

“It’s a hell of a run we’ve been on but what we have to do is start again and Saturday can’t come quick enough for us.

“We went through the game again as we always do and looked at what we did well but there’s always areas we look to improve on.

“The response in training has been very good so I can’t praise them enough.

“We were the away team last week yet we had 56 per cent possession.

“I’d rather watch us try and play the game properly than just booting it.

“I think generally speaking most supporters would want that from their team. There’s a way to win and obviously we want to do that with a bit of quality.”

Despite guiding Pool to five wins and a draw in March, Bowyer was beaten to the League Two Manager of the Month award by Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman.