Bowyer bemused by man in black

AFTER seeing Jack Payne sent off six minutes into his debut and a number of decisions go against his side, Blackpool boss Gary Bowyer hit out at referee Nigel Miller’s performance in their defeat to Plymouth at Bloomfield Road.

Nauris Bulvitis scored Plymouth’s winner just after the break, but the Seasiders played the last 21 minutes with ten men after Payne saw red for bringing down Jake Jervis as the last man.

Bowyer disagreed with the decision, while also believing Plymouth’s Jimmy Spencer should have been sent off shortly after for a high tackle on Tom Aldred.

“I feel hard done by with the rub of the green,” Bowyer said.

“When you look back at it, it’s called a goalscoring opportunity. The lad is running away at an angle, it’s a foul, but that is some goalscoring opportunity from three yards inside our half.

“The referee couldn’t get it out quick enough could he! We also had a clear cut penalty where Mark Cullen gets pulled and tripped.

“I’m also lucky we’re not talking about Tom in hospital, it’s as simple as that. You just can’t understand the decisions.

“From a performance perspective and the way we played, that’s probably one of our best performances. It’s a bitter pill to take.”

Cullen missed a golden opportunity after 41 minutes when he met Brad Potts’ cross but shot wide of the target from six yards.

Plymouth struck five minutes after the break. Sam Slocombe produced a brilliant save from Ryan Donaldson but Argyle kept the pressure on and Bulvitis headed home Graham Carey’s cross from six yards.

After Payne’s dismissal, Blackpool thought they had equalised with eight minutes remaining, but Armand Gnanduillet’s effort was headed off the line by Gary Miller.

Plymouth manager Derek Adams believed his side were worth the three points. “We’ve had to come a long distance to Blackpool and we’ve come away with a good victory,” he said.

“I thought we played very well, in possession and out of possession. I thought we were in control of the game in the first half. If there was a team that looked like getting the goal it was ourselves.

“It’s a high tackle, Jake Jervis was away on goal, so it was a clear sending off. We could have controlled the last ten minutes a bit better, we should have passed it better. But in the end we came away with the three points.”