“Two completely different halves of football”: Blackpool head coach sums up Mansfield Town defeat

Ian Evatt rued the proverbial game of two halves after watching his Blackpool players well beaten by Mansfield Town in their League One clash at Bloomfield Road.

A second-half performance every bit as miserable as Saturday’s wet and windy weather ended in a 4-1 defeat for the Seasiders, who were booed off by their supporters.

Michael Smith had given Mansfield an early lead before seeing a penalty spectacularly saved by Seasiders keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell with half-time five minutes away.

Blackpool capitalised as Dion Charles levelled moments later, only for the visitors to utterly dominate the second 45 minutes: aided and abetted by some abject defending.

Rhys Oates, one of three half-time changes made by the visitors, put them in front before Ilmari Niskanen’s own goal made it 3-1 and another sub, Tyler Roberts, completed the scoring.

Speaking afterwards, the Blackpool head coach said: “Two completely different halves of football.

“First half, we were completely dominant; they had one attack and scored.

“Bailey makes a save with the penalty but other than that, I thought we were the team that were advancing the ball.

“We were the team that created the most chances, we looked dangerous, we looked confident.

“Second half was completely different, Mansfield changed, they were more aggressive.

“We make a mistake for the second goal and the fragile side of us, which has been here a long time, came back out. It was a very disappointing second half.”

“I thought, first half, we played really well. There wasn’t a lot wrong with the first half other than the goal.

“As good as that was, the second half was equally as bad. We don’t react well to making mistakes.

“That fragile side we saw last year came out and we have to do better, we have to work harder to do better.

“Goals change games. When you’re creating so much, you have to score; today, both boxes, we haven’t been good enough.”