Fleetwood Town suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road in Sky Bet League One.
The Cods created several late second half chances, but a first half header from Jake Beesley was enough to earn the home side all three points on the night.
The Cod Army had a golden chance to take the lead inside the opening ten minutes, when Promise Omochere found himself racing away towards goal but crucially failed to get a shot off from inside the area.
Fleetwood were showing promising signs of attacking intent as the game began to open up on a windy night at Bloomfield Road, first through Tommy Lonergan who saw his close range effort blocked before Gavin Kilkenny forced a corner with a powerful low drive.
But after knocking on the door Fleetwood were made to pay when the Seasiders opened the scoring moments later, after Beesley headed home a CJ Hamilton cross into the near post.
Buoyed after taking the lead, Blackpool came forward again and were closing to doubling that lead when George Byers hit a strong low strike that had to be well saved by Jay Lynch.
With half time on the horizon, Town had a good opportunity to level the scores when Omochere cleverly cut the ball across the area but nobody could arrive to apply the finishing touch - as Blackpool took a 1-0 lead into the break.
With work to do in the second half, Fleetwood continued their search for an equaliser with Omochere at the forefront of the attacking play again as he tried a looping header at the far post, before Blackpool came close to making it two-nil when Byers squeezed a shot narrowly wide at the other end.
That illusive equalising goal was proving hard to come by for Charlie Adam’ side as Bosun Lawal was next to try his luck from the edge of the area, before the Town boss introduced Ryan Graydon off the bench with 30 minutes left to play.
Moments later Lynch was forced to spring into action again making a great save with his feet to deny Beesley his and Blackpool’s second of the evening and keep Town in the tie.
Time was running out for Town and they were dealt another blow when Blackpool were awarded a penalty after Shayne Lavery was brought to ground inside the area. Lynch was there to deny the striker from 12 yards with an excellent penalty save to keep the score at 1-0 and give Fleetwood a fighting chance in the game.
The Cod Army must’ve thought they’d equalised twice in added time but somehow couldn’t level the scores. First, Lonergan headed in Phoenix Patterson’s delightful cross at the back post only for it to be judged offside before Dan Grimshaw produced a spectacular save to deny Graydon’s volley from point blank range.
After coming agonisingly close to equalising late on, Charlie Adam’s men were left empty handed at Bloomfield Road as the game finished 1-0.
Blackpool XI: Grimshaw (GK), Husband (C), Pennington, Byers, Carey (Morgan, 90’), Dembele (Virtue, 90’), Coulson, Beesley, (Kouassi, 85’), Lavery (Joseph, 85’), Ekpiteta, Hamilton.
Subs not used: O’Donnell (GK), Gabriel, Casey.
Town XI: Lynch (GK), Johnston (Quitirna, 85’), Wiredu (C), Lawal, Kilkenny (Graydon, 63’), Mayor, Broom (Patterson, 77’), Lonergan, Heneghan, Omochere (Stockley, 85’), Rooney (Campbell, 77’).
Subs not used: McMullan, Dolan.
