'Terry McPhillips made the change before it was too late': Matt Scrafton's match verdict on Blackpool's win at Coventry

As soon as McPhillips came out for his post-match debrief with the local press, he held his hands up and admitted he got both his team selection and tactics wrong.

Pool attempted to play a 4-4-2 system, which they rarely, if ever, do but it just didn’t work. It was a mis-mash of players out of position who were left chasing shadows for much of the first half.

Blackpool’s players couldn’t get anywhere near the ball, they were constantly on the back foot and were surprisingly off the pace in a first-half display which was every bit as bad as the one they produced against Shrewsbury Town the previous week.

By half time, the most revealing stat was that Blackpool had scored just one goal in their last eight hours of action. And in truth they never looked like creating a chance, never mind scoring one during their insipid opening 45 minutes.

In McPhillips’ defence, it was hardly the ideal preparation for the Seasiders who had lost Callum Guy to injury on the Friday before finding out Chris Long, who was down to start, was also not fit enough to play.

That would put a spanner in the works for any manager, but McPhillips saw it as an opportunity to change it up a little bit – bringing in Nick Anderton, who played at left back, allowing Marc Bola to push forward into a winger’s role. On the other side of midfield was Jordan Thompson, naturally a central-minded player.

It’s fair to say it didn’t work and Blackpool really ought to have been at least a goal behind by the interval, but to their credit they defended for their lives and the score somehow remained level at half time.

But what impressed me most about McPhillips’ decision-making on Saturday was that he didn’t wait until the break to make a change, otherwise it could have been too late by then. By the way the match was progressing, it did appear it was only a matter of time until Coventry took the lead.

But McPhillips changed the shape, taking Nathan Delfouneso over to the right and bringing Thompson back into the midfield, his natural position.

But, with 10 minutes of the first half still remaining, McPhillips then had the courage and bravery to make a change – bringing off Nick Anderton, who had been caught out at left back on a couple of occasions – and bringing on Liam Feeney to give Blackpool a more balanced look, as Bola reverted back to his natural position of left back.

A lot of other managers might have sat tight and waited until the break, but McPhillips could tell his side were in danger of falling behind and made the change before it was too late.

You could see straight away Blackpool looked more settled, although Coventry came within a whisker of breaking the deadlock on the stroke of half time when Zain Westbrooke’s low shot was superbly tipped around the post by Christoffer Mafoumbi – just one of a string of fine saves by the 24-year-old.

But whatever McPhillips said to his players in the dressing room certainly worked, as the Seasiders came firing out of the blocks at the start of the second half and scored two within the space of five minutes, striking a decisive blow to the Sky Blues.

The first was an opportunist effort from Delfouneso, the forward nodding the ball home on the goalline for his sixth of the season after Curtis Tilt’s header already appeared to be creeping in off the inside of the post, but Delfouneso made sure of it to give Pool the lead just two minutes into the second period.

One became two just five minutes later, and it was some goal from Armand Gnanduillet. The striker, who finally has 10 for the season after going seven games without a goal, absolutely bullied the Coventry half Dominic Hyam – there’s no other way to describe it - before turning his man and producing a clinical low shot beyond the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner.

The quickfire double did the damage and the Coventry players dropped their heads immediately. They huffed and puffed to find an unlikely route back into the game but, when they did carve out opportunities, they found Mafoumbi in inspired form in between the sticks.

That’s now three straight clean sheets for the Congo international, who you’d think would surely hold onto the number one jersey for Pool’s midweek fixture against Wycombe Wanderers, even if Mark Howard is fit enough to return.

It’s a good problem to have though, with Pool finally having a number of players returning from injury.

By no means was this a classic away performance from Blackpool. It was your typical smash-and-grab, with Pool scoring two from three shots on goal. They’re not going to be that clinical every week and clearly, in recent weeks, they haven’t.

But Blackpool won’t care one jot, as they held on fairly comfortably to what turned out to be their first win away win against Coventry since 1937.

Owen Oyston was aged just three at that point and was just making the first steps to becoming the die-hard Blackpool fan he is today.