'The players can take confidence': Michael Appleton delivers his verdict on Blackpool's draw against Birmingham City

The Seasiders stopped the rot of four consecutive defeats before the World Cup break with a fairly drab stalemate at Bloomfield Road.

Appleton’s men were second best in the first-half and were fortunate not to fall behind, but they did improve in the second and had chances to steal the three points.

“I think the players can take confidence from this,” Appleton said.

“We kept a clean sheet, which was big. We haven’t kept enough of them this season.

“I said on Friday, we were facing a side that were in decent form before the break. There’s a lot of energy in the team, a lot of men and experienced players, so to see it out relatively comfortably…it’s a point on the board and it means we can look forward to a couple of away games now.

“In the first-half we were up against it a bit but needlessly from our point of view, rather than their good play. That was a bit frustrating for me at half-time.

“I must say, the one big opportunity they had in the first-half was a good yard or so offside, so I was a bit disappointed with that at the time but luckily we got away with them making a poor decision.

“In the second-half, there was more purpose to us. We were on the front foot, we kept them pinned in their own half for long spells.

“The quality will improve once the confidence comes back into the team, there’s no doubt about it. If we can get that and get some momentum, some of the areas we were getting into we will make better decisions.”

Appleton added: “At half-time I just told them to move the ball a bit quicker and take less touches of the ball.

“There were too many times where we turned the forward pass down. I don’t mean lumping it 60 yards, I mean 10, 15 or 20 yard passes. But we were going square and back.

“It just gives them an opportunity to get back into shape but I think we did that a little bit better in the second-half and punch passes between lines.”