BLACKPOOL manager Nigel Worthington was delighted with his side's performance against fellow strugglers Oldham on Tuesday night (Oct 19) - despite losing 2-1.

After the drubbing by Bury, Bloomfield Road looked more like Fort Knox, with bouncers brought in to bump up the number of stewards and Worthington sat in the directors box for the majority of the match, only moving down to the touchline with the support of two heavies in the final minutes.

And Mick Hennigan walked out sporting a builder's hard hat, following the impromptu arrival of a bottle of water over the dugout during the Bury thrashing.

Worthington said: "I was very pleased with the performance, especially in the first half.

"There were lots of good signs and play and as for Danny Coid, the young boy did very well.

"He's got ability and he's not scared of the situation. David Lee also gave us something tonight.

"As for the result and the deflected goal - that's football. When it's not going for you, it's not going for you."

This was far better stuff from the Seasiders - and new loan-signing David Lee, from Wigan, proved their inspiration.

The winger provided accurate crosses for the duration of the game and caused the Oldham defence major problems in the opening period. On 17 minutes, one such cross landed perfectly for John Murphy but Gary Kelly was more than able to collect it.

The Oldham keeper kept his side in the game on a number of occasions, saving from Ormerod twice in the opening 20 minutes.

Oldham opened the scoring on 63 minutes against the run of play when Lee Duxbury's hopeful-looking shot took a wicked deflection from Ian Hughes, leaving Tony Caig stranded and the visitors a goal up.

Until that point, the Seasiders were very much on top of the game, Oldham looking like they had come to Bloomfield Road to play out a draw.

On 70 minutes, John Hills came close to equalising with a 25-yard rocket that Kelly just managed to tip over the bar.

Marvin Bryan, on for Phil Robinson, caused problems on 80 minutes, but Kelly was again Oldham's saviour, collecting a mean cross cum shot.

And with the Seasiders pushing harder and harder for the equaliser, Tony Caig was pushing further and further out of his area.

On 90 minutes, he rushed out to clear a pass and fed the ball straight to sub Steve Whitehall, who promptly passed to Mark Allot who smashed the ball back past him to the left-hand side of the goal.

From the restart, the Seasiders responded quickly with a John Murphy consolation goal.

On Saturday (Oct 23) the Seasiders travel to Wycombe.

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