Steve Bruce looks back with satisfaction after Blackpool’s goalless home draw

Frustrated Blackpool boss Steve Bruce said the only positive from the dour goalless draw with injury-hit Northampton was the performance of his backline.

Seasiders’ goalkeeper Richard O’Donnell produced a couple of decent saves to keep the game goalless.

However, Rob Apter missed with the goal gaping when clean through right at the end of the Bloomfield Road stalemate.

Bruce said: “I’m frustrated, I’m disappointed. A bit of both really. The only positives when I look at the afternoon are defensively.

“We kept a clean sheet and the goalkeeper’s made a couple of good saves when we needed him.

“Overall, I don’t think many neutrals would be tuning into that one again.

“That’s one place we need to improve is the injuries. CJ Hamilton’s hurt himself in the same area again. I think that’s eight injuries we have now and it’s scary.

“Rob Apter was the bright spark. If anything was going to happen at the top end it was through him. I thought it was a cracking chance for him right at the end there and thought he would take it. But it is what it is.”

Bruce’s team are at Bolton next Saturday and the experienced boss continued: “We’ll look at what we’ve got. Count the bodies and see what we can do for next week.

“We’ve had two or three really good chances later on and didn’t take them.

“But if I’m honest we huffed and puffed all day, nothing really more than that.”

A point apiece meant both sides pushed themselves a point further away from the relegation zone.

Northampton have injury problems but it was a second successive draw and boss Jon Brady said: “You take the draw, but we had some really good chances.

“I’ve got to compliment Burgey (goalkeeper Lee Burge) on a good save towards the end. It’s a good effort from the young lad and you don’t expect that as a keeper but he gets down very low and it is an exceptional save.

“You have to praise the whole group because we are limited on numbers and they were fantastic.

“That’s an exceptional point for us with where we are bodies-wise and it’s only one loss in six for us.

“We had some chances. Foxy (Benjamin Fox) had the header from the corner and Richard O’Donnell’s made another really good save. So I thought our game plan worked really well in that respect.

“Our shape was really good and we worked the ball well. We made some good inroads in the final third and on another day you could nick it.”