McPHILLIPS RELIEVED TO BE IN DRAW
BLACKPOOL boss Terry McPhillips admitted he was pleased to be in the hat after his side were tested by non-league Solihull in front of the FA cameras on Friday night.
And he admits the National League outfit, managed by former Blackburn and England keeper Tim Flowers, will be no pushovers when it comes to the Bloomfield Road replay.
McPhillips said: “They’re a good side who are doing well in their league and they don’t concede many goals, particularly at home.
“The cameras and the atmosphere helped make for a cracking game for a 0-0. There was action at both ends. We had some chances in the second half and then had to make some great blocks to stop the ball going in our net. All in all I thought it was a fair result.
“They have some good players. The lads up front were a handful and their lads at the back were hard to get past. They also played some good football so I’m really pleased that we’re in the hat for the third round and we go again.
“It won’t be easy at ours, both teams will know who they play if they get through so it’ll be a really tough game.”
It was the home side who dominated the first half with Luke Maxwell, Jamey Osborne and Danny Wright all forcing saves from keeper Mark Howard, while an Alex Gudger ‘goal’ was controversially disallowed for offside with the TV cameras failing to clear up the confusion.
In contrast, Pool’s first shot on target came in first half injury time when Jordan Thompson drilled an effort straight at Ryan Boot in the Solihull goal.
The Moors keeper earned his corn after the break though, diving smartly to his right to keep out a well-struck Joe Dodoo effort before charging from his line to deny substitute Harry Pritchard. At that point it looked as though the League One side would blow their hosts away, but it wasn’t to be and they needed to batten down the hatches in the closing stages.
Adi Yussuf was denied by a timely block from defender Curtis Tilt, before Osborne had an effort cleared off the line by Donervon Daniels as the Moors pushed for a late winner.
Moors boss Flowers conceded that it would be a difficult match at Blackpool, but was full of praise for his players. He said: “They are red-hot favourites now, but we will go there and give it our best shot. “I thought it was a decent cup tie with plenty of endeavour which was really all I asked for from the boys. “I told them to make it a proper tie because sometimes you see a few dead rubbers with people swapping and changing – not that we could do that – but they went out and gave it a right go.”