Steve Bruce hails Blackpool’s squad strength after last-gasp win

Blackpool boss Steve Bruce praised a summer of hard work after his side snatched a last-minute winner to claim a 1-0 victory at home to Barnsley.

The decisive moment came with just seconds remaining, with Jordan Brown slotting the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

“There is value in the squad of players,” said Bruce. “It was difficult enough to leave Jordan (Brown) out.

“For him to come and take it the way he’s took it, shows you what I have been on about the value of a squad of players.

“Fair play to the hierarchy, especially the owner, it’s not easy when he has given us everything that we’ve wanted and then we get off to a bad start.

“For him and everybody concerned, the hard work in the summer of putting the squad together has enabled us to win the match.

“People that I have brought on were just as talented as the ones that have started and that’s the beauty of having a good squad.

“We saw a confident team in the first half in them and they didn’t really create much, and they had too much of the ball for my liking.

“Second half was more like us and what we are all about, and we got our reward in the end.

“We went after the ball better and had more intent, and we looked after the ball.”

Barnsley boss Conor Hourihane said: “To lose it so late is disappointing. My biggest frustration of the second half was we were really poor, if I’m being honest.

“I thought we were really good first half, I thought we played some lovely stuff.

“I just said to them at half-time, without having loads of chances, the game was there if they wanted to crank it up in the final third to score goals and try and win the game.

“I thought defensively we were decent, I don’t think we deserved to concede like that late on.

“My biggest disappointment, yes, we lost, but it was more the performance in the second half.

“I thought we came away from our level and when we come away from our level and we come away from our structure and how we are going to look, that’s when we start looking like an average team.

“You have an opposition team that want to nullify you, and they were going to come out and change a couple of things and made it scrappy and bitty.”