Jackett: My lads did Sir Jack proud
Wolves Blackpool
WOLVES manager Kenny Jackett felt this win was the perfect tribute to the club’s former owner Sir Jack Hayward.
Goals from Dave Edwards and Benik Afobe on his debut in the last four minutes kept Blackpool bottom of the table and gave Wolves a fifth win in six league games to keep them very firmly in the promotion race.
Wolves had celebrated the life of Sir Jack, who died at the age of 91 on Tuesday, before kick-off yesterday, with 28,132 spectators packing into Molineux.
“The fans turned out in great numbers for somebody who is a favourite son of both the city and the club,” said Jackett.
“It was a great tribute before the game and it was a bumper crowd to remember and celebrate a fantastic life of someone who has made a big contribution to both the area and the club.
“As a head coach I’m delighted we followed that with a good result and had a very, very buoyant stadium at the end.”
Jackett was thankful to the home supporters for sticking with their team as they toiled for a breakthrough, which eventually came in the 86th minute.
Poor
He added: “The crowd stayed with us and we can say we had to be patient. We didn’t do enough with the considerable possession we had, particularly in the first half.
“We didn’t have a shot on target in the first period and that’s poor.
“I was wondering where a goal was going to come from as it didn’t look like we were creating clear-cut chances.”
Blackpool, who have not won away from home all season, looked set to hold on for a hard-earned point after well-drilled display.
But Edwards, who missed an excellent first-half chance, broke their resistance when he forced home a cross from Rajiv Van La Parra.
Afobe, signed from Arsenal on Wednesday, sealed the win three minutes later when he capitalised on a mix-up between Blackpool goalkeeper Joe Lewis and central defender Darren O’Dea to walk the ball into an empty net.
Despite a determined rearguard action, Blackpool boss Lee Clark said: “We didn’t do enough in possession in the second half.
“We didn’t carry any threat. We never worked the goalkeeper enough.
“I think we could have relieved the pressure by being more adventurous with the ball, being better with the ball, creating more problems in an attacking sense than we did.”