Blackpool hit rock bottom of the table as Rotherham produced one of the goalless football results of the weekend in the Championship. Oliver Rathbone, a Millers midfielder, came the closest to breaking the score, but Seasiders goalkeeper Chris Maxwell stopped him with a superb save, forcing both teams to settle for a point. In his first four matches in charge of Blackpool in all competitions, new manager Mick McCarthy is now winless. Four minutes before halftime, Grant Hall missed a wonderful opportunity to give the visitors the lead when he headed Conor Coventry’s free-kick beyond. Jerry Yates, a Blackpool forward, headed agonizingly wide against his previous team as the home team stepped up their game in the second half.
Then, Cohen Bramall nearly scored, but his lovely right-footed shot hit the outside of the post and deflected to safety. Soon after the hour mark, Charlie Patino compelled Viktor Johansson to make a respectable save. After that, Maxwell made a nice save to deny Rathbone, but despite both teams fighting to the bitter end, neither was able to make the crucial difference.
“We were getting ready to fight, and I can’t fault any of the guys for how they handled it. It resembled an attrition-based battle. I completely anticipated it, and it did not let me down,” Blackpool head coach Mick McCarthy said. “I think we had some good chances throughout, and we may have just won, but I can’t say with complete honesty that we deserved all three points. We were thrown through the wringer just when I believed we had won. We haven’t had a clean sheet in a while, so I’ll take the point in the end and the positive aspects of it.”
“At halftime, I was dissatisfied because I believed Blackpool had an impact on how we handled the ball. Of course, it was a competitive game; they were up against us and played fairly physically and bluntly. But in that first half, we committed too many mistakes, and any ball use we did make resulted in too many turnovers,” Rotherham boss Matt Taylor said.
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