Neil Critchley praised the patience of his Blackpool side as their impressive home form continued with a 2-0 win over Exeter.
Long-range Albie Morgan strikes either side of half time earned the Tangerines their 10th home league win of the season – the most of any side in Sky Bet League One.
Critchley’s side remain within four points of the play-offs and the 45-year-old hailed the mentality of his players in the face of increased expectations.
“We can’t expect to just turn up and win,” he said. “That applies to all of us.
“Due to our home record, there’s an expectation that we turn up and win, but it’s not like that. It’s a total shift in mentality from my previous time here and last season as well.
“It takes a different mindset to understand, it’s not easy to beat opponents with everyone behind the ball, it takes time and patience.
“You have to work for those opportunities. In my opinion, we were the deserved winners.
“They obviously came with a plan to frustrate us and wait for us to make a mistake and counter, but we made very few errors.
“Albie (Morgan) showed what he’s capable of, and then the second goal was a great strike as well.
“We were a little bit wasteful and not clinical enough. It nearly became a game it should never have been, at 3-0 the game would’ve been completely dead and buried.”
Jordan Rhodes saw a 25th-minute penalty saved by Viljami Sinisalo, but it did not prove overly costly as Morgan slammed home from long range six minutes before the break.
The 23-year-old doubled his tally with an equally-stylish finish early in the second half to seal the outcome against an Exeter side who remain just three points above the relegation zone following a ninth successive away league match without a win.
“They [Blackpool] are the best team at home in the league for a reason, they have good players all over the park and they cause you a lot of problems,” said Grecians boss Gary Caldwell.
“We restricted them to few chances and they scored two good goals from outside the box.
“We caused ourselves too many problems, but we were better in the second half and even at 2-0, I thought there was something there for us.”
Ben Purrington made his debut for the visitors at Bloomfield Road and Caldwell hopes more reinforcements will arrive to boost his side’s survival bid.
“We are speaking to agents, clubs and players and come the end of the window I’m sure we’ll bring more players in,” he said.
“But they have to be the right players. I know it’s frustrating for the fans but we have to be patient.”
James withdraws from England squad with calf injury
England confirmed that Lauren James has withdrawn from the squad for their upcoming friendlies against Germany and South Africa.
James was named in Chelsea's starting line-up for their Women's Champions League win over FC Twente, but was replaced by Johanna Rytting Kaneryd after the warm-up after sustaining a calf injury.
Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor revealed ahead of the Blues' 5-2 victory over Tottenham that the 23-year-old is expected to be out of action for the next five to six weeks.
It serves as a bitter blow to both Chelsea and England, with James having been in fine form since the beginning of last season.
Since the start of the 2023-24 campaign, only Manchester City duo Khadija Shaw (28) and Lauren Hemp (27) have registered more Women's Super League goal involvements than James (17 - level with Alessia Russo).
James' influence on games goes beyond goals and assists in the WSL, with her 36 completed dribbles since the start of last season a total only bettered by Rytting Kaneryd (37) among her team-mates.
However, England manager Sarina Wiegman does not plan on calling up a replacement for James, with the Lionesses boasting several replacements already in their ranks.
Inzaghi pleased with Inter's spirit against Roma despite early injury nightmare
Inter boss Simone Inzaghi hailed his team's fighting spirit after Sunday's 1-0 Serie A win over Roma.
Early injuries to Hakan Calhanoglu and Francesco Acerbi threatened to derail Inter's chances on Sunday, but the Serie A champions held firm to secure the points.
Inzaghi was pleased with the team's performance and result, with Lautaro Martinez scoring the only goal of the game in the second half, but could not ignore the setbacks suffered by two key players.
"Calhanoglu wasn't in great shape over the last two days, so with the other two available I would’ve rested him this evening. He is generous and tried to put in the effort, but he felt the adductor pain and stopped before it got worse," Inzaghi told DAZN.
"Roma are a solid side with a lot of good players coming off the bench, so the fact we had to use up two substitutions was a real problem."
The victory lifted Inter to second in the Serie A table, one point behind league leaders Napoli and one point above as yet unbeaten Juventus, who they face in their next league game.
Aside from the injuries, Inzaghi was pleased with how the evening played out.
"Roma are a strong team with quality, so the lads did really well. The first half was balanced, in the second we had two or three opportunities to double our lead and should’ve killed off the game," he said.
Striker Martinez was singled out for praise by his manager after netting his third league goal of the season and 133rd for Inter in all competitions, which put him level with the club's all-time scoring record for a non-Italian.
"He just has to keep doing what he has done with Inter and Argentina. I think he is one of the five best players in the world. He deserves all of this success," Inzaghi said.
Bompastor wants goalline technology in WSL
Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor has called for goalline technology to be introduced in the women's game following a controversial incident in Sunday's win over Tottenham.
The Blues continued their fantastic start under Bompastor with a 5-2 Women's Super League victory at Kingsmeadow.
However, the match was not without incident, as Spurs' first goal, which cancelled out Maika Hamano's opener, came in contentious fashion.
Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton was adjudged to have bundled the ball over her own goal-line from Amanda Nilden's wayward pass.
Hampton received a yellow card for her protests, with replays showing the ball had not crossed the line, and Bompastor believes the introduction of goal-line technology must be forthcoming.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Bompastor said: "I just think in this type of situation we just need to help the referees. From what I was watching the game it's difficult to say if the ball was in or out. I just feel like if the technology is in for the men's game why don't we have the same?
"I think it will help the referees and for the assistant referee I think that's a hard call to make. If you're unsure it's really difficult but that's the way it is. The referee takes some decisions, and we have to accept that.
"If the technology is here we should use it. It's about having a budget - it costs money. If we want to look professional we just have to have the same thing as the men's game."
Chelsea regained the lead when Nilden put through her own net just before half-time, and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd's magnificent volley put them two goals to the good in the 70th minute.
Sandy Baltimore made it 4-1 four minutes later, slotting home a rebound after Guro Reiten's penalty came back off the post, with Rytting Kaneryd having the final say in stoppage time after Eveliina Summanen had pulled one back for Spurs.
Rytting Kaneryd got all three of her shots on target, while she also laid on the assist for Chelsea's opener.
"I hope she's going to grow again," Bompastor said of Rytting Kaneryd, whose first goal came from an expected goals (xG) value of 0.04.
"She scored some great goals and her performance was really high. I think she's confident right now on the pitch, understands exactly what I expect from her, has good chemistry with her team-mates and I think she's really helping the team to perform and get the good results."
Asked if it was the best performance of her career, Rytting Kaneryd told Sky Sports: "I feel like I keep on taking steps every day, every game. I feel like I'm in a good shape right now so maybe it was, who knows."
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
