Blackpool were beaten Bolton one-nil on Tuesday in the EFL Trophy with the League 1 side just doing enough to nudge out Pools at the Macron Stadium.
Gary Bowyer told the Official Website he was happy enough with the first half where we did ‘ever so well.’
‘I thought we were terrific first-half with the number of chances we created and the way we played. To come here to a fabulous stadium and on a fabulous pitch I thought we did ever so well.’
Yet once again the boss was left feeling frustrated by the fact chances weren’t taken.
He’s looking for his side to ‘realise the potential’ he believes the Blackpool squad has, which will happen if these numerous chances are taken, adding.
‘It’s a frustrating time for us now because we’re creating loads of chances and we haven’t got whether it’s the conviction or the application to convert them. We just said there that we have a choice now to really kick on and do something about it and realise the potential we have in the group.’
With a lack of reserve football cup-ties, such as the EFL Trophy ones, are literally all some are being limited to at the moment due to a lack of reserve team football.
Therefore Bowyer concluded this match was important for those needing the minutes with some further matches something he wants to organise with the positives from this taken forward and ‘put it all together’ at the weekend.
‘I thought we just dropped off the tempo, which is to be expected because of that. That’s up to us to try and organise some more games for the players and push the young ones on. Unfortunately we weren’t able to blood enough youngsters tonight in it. There’s been great individual performances but we now need to put it all together on Saturday.’
One of those that falls into such a category of benefiting from this match was Jamille Matt.
Matt’s made four appearances for Blackpool since his summer arrival from local rivals Morecambe but all of these have come with the striker coming off the substitutes bench.
Ahead of the match Bowyer asked Matt if he ‘had 90-minutes’ in him, which he did with him telling the Official Website this will prove invaluable for him.
‘I spoke to the Gaffer and he asked if I had 90 minutes in my legs and I did – it was a great opportunity for me. The minutes you get in a match are completely different to training, you can`t replicate everything in training so it bodes well for the squad.’
As for the defeat itself, with Blackpool seen off by a Sammy Ameobi goal, he admitted Pools have been punished for conceding soft goals with the finger of blame falling on all.
However he’s another that remains confident wins will come.
‘We had a conversation in the changing room because we`re conceding poor goals, and that`s collectively. It needs to stop because our performances have merited more than we`ve been getting. We clicked against Portsmouth but we can`t do that one week and not follow it up the next. We`ve shown when we play well we can beat any team in this division. We`ll take not playing well and winning the game and hopefully the results will follow.’
