Conor Hourihane was frustrated with his side’s second half performance in their 1-0 loss at Blackpool even more than their defending for the 98th-minute goal.
The Reds played well in the first half but the second half was totally different with the hosts on top before winning it late on.
Head coach Hourihane said: “It’s really frustrating to lose it so late but my biggest frustration was that we were really poor in the second half, there’s no shying away from it.
“We were really good in the first half, played some lovely stuff. I said to them at half-time that, without having loads of chances, the game was there for them if they wanted to crank it up in the final third.
“We came away from our level and our structure and how we want to look. That’s when we started looking like an average team.
“They changed a couple of things at half-time, made it scrappy and bitty and ran in behind al little bit more and made it the game they wanted.
“We needed to stand up to it, come through it and play our way but we never did. We didn’t grab hold of the second half at all. We never pinned them back or played through them like we did in the first half.”
The goal saw a set piece half cleared but eventually Jordan Brown fired in.
Hourihane said: “It was just case of: we’ve not played well second half, get out of here with a 0-0.
“It’s a poor goal. However the goal goes in on 98 minutes, there will be a couple of people along the way that conceded the goal like there is always a couple who score a goal. It’s not the time to rant and rave. Right now, it’s a case of letting it brew, letting it hurt and review then get better for the next one.”
Defender Jack Shepherd made a big block at 0-0 then appeared to be struggling with a back issue for the remainder of the game.
Hourihane said: “I think he’s fine. He finished the game off. There are no issues from that point of view. He will be disappointed with not keeping a clean sheet. The back line were really, really good - catching people offside blocking and being really clean in their work. But sometimes you don’t get what you deserve.”
