Michael Appleton not satisfied despite Blackpool comeback to earn a point

Michael Appleton believes his Blackpool team should have won a thrilling Lancashire derby after they stormed back from two goals down to draw 3-3 with Burnley at Turf Moor, where both teams had a man sent off.

The Seasiders looked to be heading to defeat after Josh Brownhill’s strike and a well-taken double by Southampton loanee Nathan Tella – on his first start – gave dominant Burnley a deserved 3-1 advantage at the break.

Theo Corbeanu had given Blackpool hope by pulling one back against the run of play in the 20th minute but they were a different team in the second half, when close-range finishes by Shayne Lavery and Jerry Yates in the 74th and 76th minutes brought them level.

An incident-packed game boiled over when Sonny Carey was sent off by referee Keith Stroud for a late tackle on Ian Maatsen, who also saw red for his angry reaction when he pushed the Blackpool player in the back sparking a melee.

Appleton said: “I think we should have won – there is no doubt about that. I’d be surprised if even the most ardent Burnley fan would disagree with that.

“We were poor in the first 10 minutes and that is something we need to address but once we had dusted ourselves down, the way we responded was a real credit to the players and made me proud.

“We could have won three or four games with the amount of chances we created – good chances as well, not half-chances. And there’s a bit of frustration in the dressing room among the players because they knew they had them on the ropes.”

Appleton had sympathy for Carey – who had only been on the pitch for 10 minutes – over his dismissal.

“I could see what Sonny is trying to do – he is trying to stop the momentum of the counter-attack,” he said. “It probably sounded worse than it