Mixed emotions for Neil Critchley after Blackpool are held to a goalless draw in EFL Trophy opener against Barrow

Neil Critchley expressed mixed emotions after his Blackpool side were held to a goalless draw against Barrow in their opening EFL Trophy group game.

The Blackpool boss was pleased with some of the football his side played yet expressed disappointment at their decision-making in the final third.

The Seasiders did, however, gain an extra point after winning a penalty shootout 5-3, having lost on spot kicks to Stoke City in the Carabao Cup.

“Every time we get to 90 minutes we think there’s going to be a penalty shootout,” Critchley joked.

“At least we won the penalty shootout this time, but our penalties were much better than they were against Stoke.

“Obviously it would have been nice not to go to penalties, it’s a bit frustrating we didn’t take one of the one, two, three or four opportunities we created.

“It was a point, an extra point on penalties and we kept a clean sheet, some players have played 90 minutes as well so there are some positives.

“But I’m standing here frustrated. We huffed and puffed and didn’t use the ball as well as we should have done and made use of the space on the pitch.

“However, we did play some good bits of football and had some good moves, but we were playing against a team that had 11 men behind the ball like they were against Derby at the weekend.

“You know the first goal is always crucial. If you get it then they have to come out and leave spaces which means you might go on and score a few more.

“The longer the game goes 0-0 and the longer they have something to hold onto, it becomes more of a difficult game.

“That was probably the biggest disappointment, that we didn’t take one of our chances.”

Critchley added: “You could say it was one of those nights where things didn’t drop for us in and around the goal. But I thought they defended very well and the goalkeeper was excellent.

“I was a bit disappointed with some of our final decisions, final passes and our shots. That was the most disappointing aspect of the whole evening.

“Some of the football up to the penalty area was quite good though.”