Following Blackpool’s defeat to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup, manager Neil Critchley shared his thoughts on the outcome. Nottingham Forest secured a 3-2 victory in the third-round replay at Bloomfield Road on Wednesday night, with Chris Wood scoring the decisive goal in extra time.
Despite Nuno Espirito Santo’s side taking a 2-0 lead through goals from Andrew Omobamidele and Danilo, Blackpool staged a comeback with two second-half goals. Critchley expressed disappointment at leaving empty-handed, emphasizing that, throughout the 120 minutes, the teams were indistinguishable.
Critchley remarked, “To go all that way and not to have anything to show for it is hard to take because I thought over the course of the 120 minutes, you couldn’t really tell the difference between the two teams. I thought we were brilliant. I thought we went and had a real go and made it a real exciting cup tie.”
Expressing regret that the match didn’t proceed to penalties, Critchley highlighted the team’s resilience in coming back from a 2-0 deficit and praised the quality of the goals scored.
Critchley also raised concerns about potential missed calls, suggesting that Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel might have deserved a penalty in the second half, and questioning the legitimacy of Chris Wood’s winning goal, considering it “borderline offside.”
“We had VAR in the first game, but we hadn’t got VAR tonight. We might have had a penalty, we might have had an offside decision. The integrity of the competition has to be in question,” Critchley concluded.