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Club News

Stanley 1 Blackpool 2

5 March 2019

Club News

Stanley 1 Blackpool 2

5 March 2019

Stanley lost to Blackpool in a heated encounter as the Reds ended the game with 10-men.

Blackpool took the lead through Matty Virtue before Stanley equalised through Luke Armstrong and Sam Finley hit the woodwork.

The game erupted in the 80th minute when Callum Johnson was judged to have brought down Liam Feeney in the area – and Jay Spearing fired home the penalty.

Stanley keeper Dimitar Evtimov was then sent off for an off-the-ball incident as the game erupted with the 10-men unable to grab an equaliser.

Harvey Rodgers and Armstrong came into the team, replacing Billy Kee and Paul Smyth who dropped to the bench following the 1-0 loss to Coventry.

Blackpool opened the scoring in the fifth minute when Virtue got the ball on the edge of the area and fired low into the bottom corner of the net.

Jordan Clark had a great chance to equalise a minute later, running onto a Sean McConville ball in the area but rifling his shot into the away fans behind the goal.

Stanley drew level on 23 minutes with a swift passing move which saw Middlesbrough loan striker Armstrong get the ball from Liam Gibson and sweep it home.

Gibson fired just wide moments later and Armstrong headed off-target as Stanley piled on the pressure.

It was an open game with Antony Evans blasting across the face of goal and just wide for ‘Pool while Stanley were an attacking threat but it was 1-1 at the break.

Stanley started the second half with purpose and broke quickly through McConville and Clark but a timely tackle from Ben Heneghan stopped the winger shooting.

The Reds had a great chance to take the lead when Finley tried his luck from 25 yards on 51 minutes – his strike rebounded off the crossbar with the goalkeeper Mark Howard beaten.

Blackpool came back though and Chris Long had a goalbound strike kept out by Evtimov and his follow-up blocked.

The Reds stopper then kept out Armand Gnanduillet and then Virtue as Stanley had to defend well but, in an end-to-end contest, the Blackpool defence also managed to clear a number of goalmouth scrambles as both sides looked for the winner.

Finley blasted a shot just wide again and then, on 80 minutes, the referee pointed to the spot – disputed by the Reds players.

Captain Spearing took the penalty and smashed it straight down the middle and beyond Evtimov.

Evtimov was then shown a red card in an off-the-ball incident as Stanley finished the game with 10-men.


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