The Opposite View

Jepson was keen to emphasise that it just wasn't Gillingham's game and they could, and possibly should, have gone on to win the game.

"In terms of effort, I could not fault them, just like I haven't been able to over the last two or three games. They did well but, at this moment in time, we are just not getting the breaks. Hopefully if we keep putting out like that, it will come."

Admittedly, the Gills could have won the game with a spot-kick in the 2nd half which, after seeing the incident on telly, did look a tad innocuous. Michael Flynn - formerly of Wigan when he had a loan spell with the Seasiders under Colin Hendry - stepped up to take the spot-kick but it was palmed away for a corner by Paul Rachubka.

"The penalty that we missed, you have got to be brave enough to step up and take a penalty. Of all the times that we wanted him to put it in, it was today to go on and make it three-one and make the game safe. It was a big turning point in the game. Their heads would've gone down. 'Flynny' has hit it at a good height for the keeper and it has given them a lift. He took the responsibility though so fair play. If that goes in, we go on to win the game comfortably but it wasn't to be."

Ben Burgess netted his first ever League goal for Blackpool following a defensive mistake by Brent Sancho - after an Andy Morrell looping header crashed back off the bar and into the defender's path;

"I spoke to Brent Sancho at half time and he said the ball has hit him in the midriff and he couldn't get it out to clear it. Their lad has come in and scored it. That just about summed our day up today. It was a fantastic strike from their lad for the second goal but our keeper hardly had a thing to do. Their keeper was certainly a lot busier."

The officials - as shown in this week's "Men In Black" - were once again of a poor standard to say the least, and Jepson was far from happy with some decisions.

'To then have a stonewall penalty turned down, towards the end, it was a penalty and I don't have to look at that on the video. The referee and linesman are in great positions and maybe as they gave us one earlier and a couple of freekicks that were dubious to say the least, maybe they decided there that they didn't want to give it to us. I told the ref what I thought and that it was a penalty. The linesman was giving the little things, the little tugs and that, but never saw what I thought was a big decision. He must have had somebody blocking his way. It was a penalty. Every man and his dog knows it was a penalty. It's gone now."

In the end, the Gills manager was resigned to admitting that it just wasn't their day and a point was better than none.

"We kept going to the end and maybe one or two other things could have dropped for us. I have to give the boys credit as if we keep playing like that; we'll be okay. We got a point, a good point, but, overall, I think we deserved three points. Sometimes you can look for things and try to analyze things but all in all today, we never got the rub of the green. We never got the big decision and that is the bottom line."

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