Two points are blown away

Scorers: O'Kane (45), Hills (64)

Scorers: Bullard (pen 33), Edwards (78)

Attendance: 4,604

A FREAK goal prevented Pool from collecting all three points in a windy encounter at Bloomfield Road, last Saturday.

John Hills had emphatically put Pool ahead after John O'Kane had equalised Peterborough's early lead. But it all went wrong for Phil Barnes on 78 minutes when he completely mis-judged the flight of the ball and gifted the Posh a point.

In the end, however, Peterborough earned their good fortune and a draw was probably a fair result.

After an excellent win for the Seasiders away at Wigan the previous week, Steve McMahon named an unchanged side. This meant there was no room in the starting eleven for Lee Collins and Paul Simpson who both signed new contract extensions during the week.

Pool started brightly with Scott Taylor getting two decent scoring opportunities early on. But on both occasions the Blackpool forward hesitated and gave the Posh defence opportunities to intercept.

Blackpool continued to have the better of the play in the opening half hour but Peterborough were the first to open the scoring on 33 minutes.

In a rare early attack by the away side, on-loan Pool defender Rhys Day was adjudged to have upended Leon Mackenzie as he shaped to shoot. The referee awarded a penalty which Jimmy Bullard clinically converted to put the visitors ahead.

This encouraged Peterborough and Pool had Phil Barnes to thank for keeping them in the game. In the ten or so minutes after the goal, Peterborough players twice found themselves one-on-one with Barnes but on both occasions the Blackpool keeper saved brilliantly.

Pool would have been lucky to go into the break only a goal down but Steve McMahon must have felt really fortunate when his team equalised on the stroke of half time.

A short corner from John Hills found Martin Bullock who crossed into the box where John O'Kane stooped to glance the ball into the corner. The goal capped a return to form for the Blackpool midfielder which has seen him put in a couple good performances recently. Amazingly, though, this wasn't good enough for a minority of supporters who unbelievably booed when the scorer's name was announced on the PA system.

Both sides had chances to put themselves back in front after the break. John Murphy had the best chance for Pool, beating Posh keeper Mark Tyler to the ball at the edge of the box. But the angle was very tight and Murphy failed to guide the ball into the unguarded net. The visitors came closest when Howard Forinton's header would have gone in but for the alertness of Danny Coid who cleared off the goal line.

Someone seemed certain to score and fortunately for Pool it was John Hills, just after the hour mark. Hills himself started the move putting in a cross which fell to John Murphy. He knocked it down to Scott Taylor, but his shot was saved and the ball ran free inside the box. Luckily the ball fell to Hills who fired a shot into the corner.

But then came the bizarre goal from Peterborough. Andy Edwards just managed to keep the ball in play on the right wing and while the Pool players, Barnes included, claimed the ball had gone out for a throw Edwards ran to the by-line and crossed. This should have been easily claimed but Barnes was caught off guard and, due to the flight of the ball in the swirling wind, the Blackpool keeper could only manage to deflect it into the far corner for the strangest of own goals. It was a pity because he'd had a fantastic game up to that point

Both sides failed to create any further goal-scoring opportunities in the last ten minutes and the points were shared. Steve McMahon seemed unable to hide his disappointment as the players left the field but on reflection he'll probably accept that a draw was fair to both sides.