THE Seasiders crashed to their tenth league defeat of the season in a gritty battle against Millwall on Tuesday night (Nov 23), beaten 2-1 at Bloomfield Road.

Despite controlling the match for the duration of the second half and the Lions being reduced to ten men, Blackpool failed to supply the ammunition for John Murphy and Paul Durnin to convert into goals.

Millwall let their intentions be known from the outset when Neil Harris let rip a 20-yarder in the first minute.

But Blackpool went one better on nine minutes and looked to have taken the lead when Clark Carlisle slotted home a David Lee cross, deflected off Phil Clarkson, only to hear the ref blow for offside.

There are certain players who like playing against Blackpool - and Millwall have one in Paul Moody.

On 35 minutes he powered a header into the back of the net after Neil Harris' cross embarrassed the Blackpool defence.

His ball landed perfectly for an unmarked Moody - and Tony Caig was helpless to stop his powerful header.

The Tangerines were quick to respond just two minutes later with a carbon-copy goal.

John Murphy found plenty of space to latch onto the end of David Lee's cross to put the Tangerines on equal terms. And Blackpool looked the stronger side until a dreadful mix-up two minutes into extra time.

When Stuart Nethercott drove the ball through the Tangerine defensive line, Carlisle and Caig collided to leave Moody with an empty net for his second.

Carlisle was stretchered off to have eight stitches in his nose and Paul Beesley replaced him.

And as far as Millwall were concerned, that was that.

They spent the duration of the second half sitting on their lead and didn't allow Blackpool's long-ball tactics to bother them in the slightest.

Even when Ricky Newman brought down Danny Coid to earn his second yellow card, Blackpool simply could not get into Millwall's penalty area.

And when they did, awarded a free kick for obstruction on John Murphy, their chances came to absolutely nothing.

After the match, manager Nigel Worthington said: "I thought we played all right at times.

"We didn't get into the box the way we should have done. Marvin Bryan had plenty of opportunities to do that but dilly-dallied with the ball."

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