Blackpool had to suffer for victory over Swansea, claims Neil Critchley

Blackpool manager Neil Critchley said his players had to sacrifice their egos and suffer without the ball in a narrow 1-0 win over Swansea at Bloomfield Road.

Gary Madine’s fourth-minute header was enough to give the Seasiders a third league win in a row, and a fifth in six home games.

Blackpool are 12th, moving within six points of sixth-placed Luton, and Critchley said that despite their opponents having 77 per cent possession, his side were comfortable.

“Swansea can make teams suffer by keeping the ball, but (the players) are good at suffering!” said Critchley.

“You have to put your ego aside when you play against Swansea because you know they’re going to have a lot of the ball.

“Our squad have humility, they work for each other, and you can see that in abundance – I wouldn’t want to play against them.”

An organised Tangerine defence frustrated the Welsh side, who dominated the ball throughout the 90 minutes, but Critchley insisted the scoreline was a fair reflection.

He added: “I love watching Swansea play, they’re fantastic – the way they play is very brave.

“They’re the best in the league at keeping the ball, the stats prove that.

“But it’s about scoring goals and winning games and you can do that in a whole host of different ways – I don’t think they can grumble about the scoreline.”

After Madine took advantage of slack marking from a corner early on, Blackpool looked for a second goal but only needed one to extend their unbeaten run over Swansea to nine games, a streak that stretches back to April 2006.

Despite dominating possession, the Swans failed to create many chances during the game, and they remain in 16th place after registering only one shot on target.

The Tangerines had the better of the chances in the match, with Josh Bowler missing two glorious opportunities to double their lead and Charlie Kirk seeing a first-half effort well saved by visiting keeper Andy Fisher.

Regardless, Swansea manager Russell Martin was proud of his players for the way they played, despite missing the finishing touch in front of goal.

He said: “We were great in the first half, really dominant, (although) we didn’t create enough.

“A little bit of ruthlessness and quality in the final third was all that was lacking today, but over the last four games our performance level has been really good.

“I really enjoyed today, it’s a sign of where we want to get to, of where we want to be next season.”

Martin was pleased to bring deadline-day signing Nathanael Ogbeta off the bench for his first appearance since his move from Shrewsbury, as well as giving minutes to academy youngster Cameron Congreve, who signed his first professional contract two days ago.

He said: “Congreve deserved his chance; he’s shown his quality in the brief time he had on the pitch.

“We had a lot of young men playing, they just need to keep growing and growing but, at the same time, they have to earn the right to play.

“They’re getting better and better all the time; the older ones are helping them – they are the players who will be a huge part of what we’re doing (going forward).”