Boss Jim Magilton hailed Town's 1-1 draw at Blackpool as a "confidence booster" after six away defeats in a row. However, the game at Bloomfield Road was the Blues' 18th away game without a win.

Magilton said: "It's a confidence booster for us. We haven't won, but we haven't lost. It was important that we got something from the game and we did.

"When you're down to 10 men and you're a goal down you fear the first, but Jon put in a terrific shift again, it was a fantastic header and it was a great time to score.
"We came back last week as well, so I'm really pleased with the players.

"We have 10 days now until our next game, which is a little disappointing, but hopefully we'll get one or two new bodies in, have time to work with them and move on."

Magilton felt there was nothing malevolent in the challenge that led to Sito's record-equaling third Town red card, but conceded that, given the current interpretation of the laws, the dismissal was not a huge surprise: "Sito had his eye on the ball and I didn't think he was going to get a red card, but the referee was in a good position and saw it differently.

"With the FA directive as it is now, it seems to be those sort of challenges are ending in a red card, but Sito has not got a malicious bone in his body and I didn't think his feet were raised off the floor.

"The sending off seemed to spur us on, though. We scored with a fantastic goal from Jon and played better with 10 men. The players deserve a lot of credit for that and it was a moral victory in a way."

Magilton was also pleased with Gary Roberts's performance on his return to the starting line-up: "Gary has been determined to get back in the side and deserved his chance.

"It's been a learning curve for him over the last few months, but he's worked hard and I thought he was probably our brightest player in the first half and made a few things happen."

The Town manager was also impressed with the 1,500-strong support: "They are fantastic and the support is appreciated by everyone in the dressing room."

Blackpool boss Simon Grayson thought that recent signing Stephen McPhee should have won his side the game when he had a golden chance between Sito's red card and Jon Walters's equaliser: "In football there's a fine line between winning games and losing them.

"Macca's chance was a great opportunity to go 2-0 up, they equalised and from then on we didn't really play as well as we could do.

"We lacked quality, we lacked patience - it's difficult when you play against 10 men and they were galvanised by their goal.

"I'm not blaming Stephen because it could have been anybody who missed that chance, but the performance over the last 20 minutes wasn't good enough."

Grayson was also disappointed with the goal his side conceded: "It just drives you mad because you can't do much more as a manager. People have got to take responsibility on the pitch and it's been a big downfall for us this season.

"We could have been nine points clear of the relegation zone with a comfortable 1-0 win, so we have to learn from our mistakes.

"We've shown some good quality this season against some good teams but we know we've still got work to do. The players have got to draw confidence from the first half of the season and keep going."

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