Joe Nuttall’s injury time goal consigned the Blues to a 2-1 defeat at Blackpool. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s 26th minute goal gave the Tangerines a 1-0 half-time lead but Freddie Sears levelled with his first goal of the season on 54 and might have won it seconds before Nuttall’s winner for the home side.
Freddie Sears and Teddy Bishop both made their first league starts of the season either side of Will Keane in a front three as the Blues moved to a 4-3-3 system.
Cole Skuse was in the deeper midfield role behind Emyr Huws and Flynn Downes ahead of a back four of - from the right - Luke Woolfenden, skipper Luke Chambers, Josh Earl and Luke Garbutt.
"Gwion Edwards, Jon Nolan and Alan Judge dropped to the bench having started last week’s 1-0 home defeat to Oxford, while Kayden Jackson served the first game of his three-match ban for last week’s red card.
Young striker Tyreece Simpson was on the bench for the first time in a league game, while Armando Dobra was also in the 18.
Blackpool named the same team for the third successive game with ex-Blues loanee Liam Feeney starting and former Town midfielder Grant Ward on the bench.
The Tangerines won a couple of early corners, the second of which was claimed comfortably by keeper Tomas Holy despite very windy conditions. On six a Garbutt corner from the right floated over Keane’s head at the far post.
Town, in blue shorts, began to control the game and might have gone ahead in the 11th minute. Sears was played in on the right of the area and sent over a low ball which was hit just too hard for Huws as he broke into the box at the far post.
Two minutes later, a long Holy kick from his own area was assisted by the wind into the Blackpool area and bounced over the bar.
Sears got under a bouncing ball just outside the area and sent it well into the stand behind the goal in the 16th minute with the Blues having had the better of the opening quarter of an hour despite the difficult conditions.
There was a scare for Town in the 19th minute when Garbutt failed to deal with an awkward long ball but Chambers prevented Gary Madine from getting in a shot and the on-loan Everton man eventually put a cross from the left behind for a corner which came to nothing.
A minute later Bishop ran into an advertising hoarding at pace as he chased the ball out of play. After initially looking in some pain the academy product was OK to carry on.
Soon after, Downes won the ball in the Town half and brought it forward before feeding Keane to his right on the edge of the Blackpool box from where the ex-Manchester United trainee scraped a low shot across the face when he might have been better looking for Sears in the middle.
In the 24th minute Madine tried to catch Holy off his line with a shot from 35 yards out on the right but sent the ball well into the stand.
Two minutes later, the Tangerines took the lead with Town very much the architects of their own downfall.
First Garbutt’s back-heel not far outside the area on the left gave the ball away, then after the Blues had fended off the initial danger, Downes got in Huws’s way as the Welshman looked to bring it out from the edge of the box and Dewsbury-Hall hit a low shot which flew through a crowd of players beat Holy to his right off the inside of the post.
The Blues looked to hit back, Bishop playing a ball over the top for Sears which was too close to Tangerines keeper Chris Maxwell, who claimed. Off the field sections of the large Town following chanted ‘Lambert, sort it out’ and ‘five more years, you’re having a laugh’.
The Blues players felt they should have been awarded a penalty in the 37th minute when Downes was found in space on the left of the box and hit a shot which Maxwell saved. Sears looked to be first to the loose ball but was challenged as he sought to put away the rebound, the ball going behind.
The Blues claimed a spot-kick but referee Christopher Sarginson waved away the protests and awarded a goalkick, which seemed the least likely of the three possible decisions he could have made.
Downes hit a low shot wide a minute later with the Blues starting to put the home side under pressure. Soon after, Huws struck a shot which Maxwell gathered.
On 43 Chambers went down midway inside the Blackpool half with what looked like a painful knee problem as he battled for the ball with Madine but after treatment was able to carry on. Garbutt took the freekick and not for the first time saw it taken well beyond his team-mates by the wind.
In injury time, Maxwell saved Sears’s shot from the edge of the area down to his left after Keane had knocked down. Soon after, Bishop was halted in his tracks as he weaved his way into the area.
On the balance of the half, the Blues didn’t deserve to be behind having seen most of the ball and most of the chances.
But they could only have themselves to blame for the Blackpool goal which was the result of a series of errors.
At the other end, the Blues had had the chances to level the scores as they finished the half strongly but had again lacked a clinical edge, either missing the target or finding Maxwell in their way, although Sears might well have had a penalty.
Nathan Delfouneso flicked a header through to Holy soon after the restart, then on 51 Feeney hit a low shot at the far post which flew behind off Garbutt.
The Blues had caused Blackpool little danger since the break but in the 55th minute they equalised.
The home side failed to deal with a long ball ball down the right, Downes doing well to win possession and find Keane. The striker found himself some space before cutting the ball across the area to Sears, who fired past Maxwell to claim his first goal of the season, his last having come on January 26th last year prior to his ACL injury.
On 59 Downes was booked for shaking off Matthew Virtue-Thick who had been hanging off his shirt as he tried to bring the ball forward. It was the midfielder’s 10th league booking of the season meaning the England U19 international is banned for the next two games. Almost immediately, Downes and Bishop were swapped for Alan Judge and Dobra.
The game was developing into an end to end affair with Town dominating possession in the Blackpool half but not finding a way through the Tangerines’ backline, while the home side looked to catch the Blues on the break.
In the 66th minute Sears smashed a shot against a defender on the edge of the box before Blackpool switched Connor Ronan for Joe Nuttall.
Five minutes later, Sears crossed deep from the right and Judge scuffed a volley into the ground and through to Maxwell.
Soon after, Garbutt cut the ball back to Keane at the near post from where the striker managed an effort at goal which Maxwell turned behind. From the corner, Keane’s header looped well over.
But Blackpool were seeing more of the ball and in the 77th minute they went close to going back in front. After Holy had almost been caught out by Feeney’s pace - and the if anything even stronger wind - as he rushed out of his area to the left, the resultant corner was sent in and Madine headed against the bar. The ball bounced back out but Holy was able to claim.
At the other end, Dobra fed Judge, who hit a low shot not too far wide of Maxwell’s right post. On 81 Dewsbury-Hall was yellow-carded for a foul on Dobra.
As rain began to fall heavily, an attempted Holy long kick was virtually stopped in the air by the wind prior to Keane being replaced by Simpson, who was making his league debut.
Simpson was quickly into the action, breaking down the left and sending over a deep cross. Dobra cleverly tricked his way back in from the other flank but laid the ball off slightly too short for Judge on the edge of the box. On 86 Calum MacDonald was booked for a foul on Woolfenden as Town broke.
In injury time Sears looked like he might win it at one end when he was played through on goal by Judge but Maxwell saved to his left. And immediately the home side went up the other end and claimed the three points.
A cross was sent in from the right and sub Nuttall beat Holy to it at the near post to nod into the net. The Blackpool players celebrated with their fans behind the goal causing an advertising hoarding to fall over.
Town desperately went looking for another equaliser in the remaining seconds, Holy going up for corner, but referee Sarginson’s whistle confirmed another frustrating and ultimately pointless afternoon for the Blues.
Having got back on terms, the Blues saw plenty of the ball and had chances but as so often of late without finding the net.
Sears looked like he was going to win it in injury time only for Nuttall to grab a win for the home side which on the balance of the game they hadn’t deserved.
The result leaves Town still ninth, five points off the play-offs and nine from the top two ahead of back-to-back home games against Fleetwood and Coventry.
Blackpool: Maxwell, Turton, Moore, Husband, Macdonald, Feeney, Virtue, Ronan (Nuttall 67), Dewsbury-Hall, Delfouneso, Madine. Unused: Sims, Howe, Bola, Edwards, Spearing, Ward.
Town: Holy, Woolfenden, Chambers (c), Earl, Garbutt, Skuse, Downes (Judge 60), Huws, Sears, Bishop (Dobra 60), Keane (Simpson 83). Unused: Norris, Wilson, Edwards, Nolan. Referee: Christopher Sarginson (Staffordshire).