BOWYER NOT PARTYING YET
BLACKPOOL manager Gary Bowyer is refusing to get carried away despite his side jumping up to fifth in League Two with a comeback win against Hartlepool.
Kyle Vassell struck the winner ten minutes from time after Bright Osayi-Samuel had cancelled out Lewis Alessandra’s opener.
The Seasiders are one of the form sides in the country having lost just one of their last 15 games, winning their last three.
They leapfrogged Carlisle, Exeter and Luton to move into the play-offs, but Bowyer is keeping his feet on the ground.
“You can’t get ahead of yourself in this game because the moment that starts you get a big slap round the face,” Bowyer said.
“We’re just going to concentrate on what we’ve done for the last month or so which is prepare properly and win games. We will look at areas we can improve and go again to try and get three points next Saturday.
“It was a very hard-fought victory. We looked nervy at the start but we responded ever so well to going a goal down.
“We found the way to win a game again. We know that we can play better than we have done here.”
Hartlepool, roared on by over 1,600 travelling supporters, went ahead after 18 minutes. Blackpool’s Kelvin Mellor and Tom Aldred left the ball to one another and Alessandra capitalised by spinning and firing home from 15 yards.
The Seasiders responded within three minutes, however, as Osayi-Samuel controlled the ball inside the area and stroked his third in two games low into the far corner.
But the hosts had Dean Lyness to thank for keeping Hartlepool at bay before halftime, keeping out first Lewis Hawkins and then Padraig Amond after 29 minutes and then acrobatically tipping Alessandra’s shot over on 41 minutes.
Hartlepool continued to threaten and a brilliant advantage from the referee allowed Padraig Amond to go clean through ten minutes later, but Lyness saved again. And Blackpool struck the decisive blow on 80 minutes as substitute Vassell’s cross-shot looped over Joe Fryer and into the far corner from the tightest of angles.
“I thought we deserved something from the game, we dominated for large periods,” Hartlepool boss Dave Jones said.
“It’s hard to swallow because we’ve played so well but that must be the fifth or sixth time I’ve said that. We switched off for the second goal and that’s what we can’t do. It’s a trait that we have at the moment and we’re trying to take that out of us.
“If we continue to develop and believe in what’s happening, then we will get there.
“One or two need to realise that it’s about a team and not the individual.”