A floral tribute to Ian Hesford was placed behind the goal in front of the Kop today and the former Blackpool keeper will have had a wry smile on his face watching Jacob Murphy's free kick fly in to the back of the net. Even the best shot stoppers would have had problems keeping that out. As we said Goodbye to a name from Blackpool's past, we finally saw signs of an emerging talent at Bloomfield Road. Take a bow Mr Murphy, that goal was worth the entrance fee alone.

There was a lot of looking down at programmes and team sheets today with a Blackpool side that looked as strange on the eye as the Bolton third kit. In came Tom Kennedy, Chris Eagles and Jamie O'Hara with new boys Brian Lenihan and Jacob Murphy joining Jacob Mellis in the starting line up. Seems strange to talk about David Perkins as a veteran of this club. Lee Clark set out with a 4-5-1 formation with Nile Ranger leading the line. It worked in part but did leave Ranger often isolated but it was good to finally see some wing play from Eagles and Murphy with some neat passing from O'Hara. It was a shame when Mellis went off early doors to be replaced by the ineffectual Orlandi as that seemed to take something away from a side that did well in the opening stages.

'Pool almost went in front on 18 minutes when Jacob Mellis's deflected shot from 25 yards looped over Bolton goalkeeper Andy Lonergan and bounced back off the crossbar. Shortly after it was the visitors who hit the woodwork as Lee's low shot rebounded off the post and Liam Feeney fired the follow-up wide. Donervon Daniels spurned a great chance for Blackpool when he lashed wide from eight yards before Nile Ranger headed Murphy's corner over on the stroke of half-time. After the break Bolton's Josh Vela over-hit a back-pass to Lonergan, who had to scramble back to prevent an own goal before Murphy flashed a 20-yard shot just wide.
Blackpool's pressure eventually paid off when Murphy, on-loan from Norwich City, was brought down on the edge of the area and stepped up to place a sublime free-kick past Lonergan. The joy was short-lived as Bolton equalised against the run of play through Lee after a shocking clearance from Perkins who had a poor game.

A point sadly is not enough and you'd say that whilst the performance was improved, we are still someway off hitting the form that we need to in order to get out of this mess. However, points at the bottom eventually mount up and whilst it's only a point, it's a point in the right direction.

Photo: Action Images

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