Neil Critchley likes the look of Coventry

Blackpool boss Neil Critchley hailed Coventry the best team his side have played this season after holding the Sky Blues to a 1-1 draw at The Coventry Building Society Arena.

Former Coventry striker Gary Madine opened the scoring for the Tangerines before top goalscorer Viktor Gyokeres levelled things before half-time in the Sky Bet Championship clash.

“I thought Coventry were excellent, especially in the first half,” claimed Critchley. “They’re the best team we’ve played this season.

“I thought it was a really good, entertaining game, their system gives you a problem, the way they play within that system and the players they’ve got give you a real problem and they gave us a real problem in the first half.”

Coventry came out of the blocks fast with Gyokeres diverting Callum O’Hare’s shot narrowly wide inside the opening 70 seconds, whilst Gustavo Hamer and Ian Maatsen also had efforts on goal.

But Madine capitalised on a Blackpool breakaway and tapped in Owen Dale’s cross at the far post to net his second in as many games.

Critchley added: “I thought we carried a threat, we scored our first goal and I thought for the next 10 minutes we settled down, even though they had more of the ball we were looking quite comfortable.

“We managed to get some information onto the pitch that helped us a little bit in terms of our defensive set-up.

“In the second half I thought we played very well, played some really good football, it was an even game and we probably looked the most likely to score but you always know with the quality they’ve got, and they score a lot of goals late, they’re likely to score a chance and win the game.”

Coventry boss Mark Robins was left rueing missed first-half chances and a defensive error that left his