What Neil Thought - Blackpool

Neil Lennon believes a point was the least his side deserved from their clash with Blackpool at Bloomfield Road on Saturday afternoon.

Wanderers dominated in possession throughout the game and, despite falling behind to a 75th minute Jacob Murphy free-kick, hit back inside the final ten minutes of the clash through Lee Chung-Yong to secure a share of the spoils on the Fylde Coast.

“I thought we were very rusty for the first 25 minutes,” said the manager. “Whether that’s the international break or not, I don’t know, but compared to levels we were previously playing at it was a little bit disjointed.

“Once we found our feet in the game, we were fine, but we conceded to a brilliant free-kick and sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say it was a good goal.

“I thought we dominated the second half and a point was the least we deserved.

“The quality of the pitch didn’t help our play, but you have to win games in all kinds of conditions in this league.”

Lennon also noted certain incidents in the game, with the Bolton boss believing that hosts were lucky not to be playing with a man less following a first half incident between Craig Davies and Blackpool goalkeeper Joe Lewis.

“I felt that we were unlucky not to be playing against ten men when in the first half - Craig has read a backpass and nicked the ball away from the goalkeeper.

“We feel he has been denied a goalscoring opportunity and that the incident possibly incurred inside the area.

“It would have been a huge advantage for us in the game, but we have to remember that Blackpool are scrapping for their lives and Lee Clark has set them up in a certain way because of that.”

He continued: “I am disappointed that we’ve only left with one point with the form we’ve been in of late, but I think that’s a measure of how far we’ve come in a short space of time.

“I felt like we played some excellent football today but perhaps we were a little lacking in the final third, but that will come with the more games we play."

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He's walked

He's a broken man, can see it in that video.

karlypants wrote:[b]

Lennon also noted certain incidents in the game, with the Bolton boss believing that hosts were lucky not to be playing with a man less following a first half incident between Craig Davies and Blackpool goalkeeper Joe Lewis.

“I felt that we were unlucky not to be playing against ten men when in the first half - Craig has read a backpass and nicked the ball away from the goalkeeper.

“We feel he has been denied a goalscoring opportunity and that the incident possibly incurred inside the area.

Looking at the replay it was clearly a red card offence although outside the area.

I understand Freedman's "AC Milan of the late 90's" approach to ceding possession, defending solidly and attacking predominantly on the break but it requires quality defenders in the Maldini and Nesta mould that we haven't got.
Lennon's possession-based approach also requires quality that we haven't got, but there's a difference - with possession we are always going to create something and are therefore always in with a chance. Unfortunately we aren't creating loads of quality chances and our finishing still leaves much to be desired - but at least going a goal behind doesn't leave us with an impossible task.
Blackpool's goal from one of the Norwich twins was class and could happen to any team in any game but under Lennon we salvaged something and that's an improvement