Scunthorpe United 1, Blackpool 0

SOME fine football but no goals and no points - that was the sad but familiar tale of Pool's visit to Scunthorpe.

Despite dominating much of the game with long periods of possession Pool never rarely threatened to score and they were left to pay the price for conceding a soft goal just before half time following a misjudgement by Tony Caig.

Caig failed to hold a long range shot after being caught off balance and as the ball fell loose and Steve Torpey ran through to put Scunthorpe ahead.

To be fair to Caig he made several excellent saves in the match further enhancing his reputation as an excellent shot stopper but his ability to command his box was again in question.

In a familiar story for Seasiders fans, despite having most of the possession it was the opposition who looked most like scoring when they did attack.

Paul Simpson, impressive again in midfield, came closest to equalising for Pool, and should have scored after running through the defence with just the keeper to beat. But the keeper got a foot to it and the follow up was shot wide. For much of the game, though, Pool's impressive passing in midfield came to nothing as the crucial final ball went astray or could not be picked up by the well marked forward pair of Newell and Milligan who lacked the mobility to be truly incisive.

Morrison received a heroes welcome from the travelling Pool fans and has clearly improved his game as a result of playing a higher level.

But without Brett Ormerod the team lacked pace and although the situation did improve when Nowland came on for Milligan with ten minutes to go but Tangerine fans were left wondering why a change was not made earlier.

In the end neat midfield play will not bring points without real quality up front.

Team: Caig, Jaszczun, Bushell, Hughes, Morrison, Milligan (Nowland 82), J Murphy, Newell, Coid, Wellens, Simpson