Micky Mellon: Town did well to hold on

Nathaniel Knight-Percival and Shaun Whalley gave Mellon's side the ideal start to put them 2-0 up inside the first seven minutes.

Former Blackpool striker Andy Mangan added a third on 29 minutes. Tom Aldred reduced the arrears on 36 and Danny Philliskirk made things tense with Blackpool's second nine minutes after the break.

But, despite the hosts' comeback, Town saw the game out with little trouble after Jayson Leutwiler denied sub Uche Ikpeazu and Philliskirk while Junior Brown headed off the line from the latter.

Boss Mellon said: "It was a great start - but it wasn't just the goals, it was the way we bossed the game and we played the way we wanted to play.

"I think they had the third best defensive record in the league, never mind at home, so to score three goals we were delighted.

"But the way we battled and fought, along with the fans who were terrific - I can't believe how many there were again - was enough to see ourselves over the line.

"So it was a great result and a terrific performance and coming off the back of the Fleetwood game, to take four points from those two games, I'm very pleased.

"We should have got something from the Southend game but we're pleased with a lot of things that are going well for us at the minute."

Mellon admitted the onus had swung Blackpool's way after Aldred made it 3-1 nine minutes before the break.

He said: "We probably could have had another one or two goals but when we lost that sloppy goal from a set-play it just gave Blackpool a bit of belief.

"They went a lot more direct in the second-half and had a lot of people running onto stuff that was smashed onto our back five.

"Then it became a bit of a battle on the edge of the 18-yard box but like I've said to the players, it takes many different qualities to win a game of football.

"The qualities we had to be good at against Blackpool, we were brilliant at."

Mellon threw on another former Blackpool player in Richie Wellens to help shore things up just after the hour, replacing Whalley as Town went from 3-4-2-1 to 3-5-2.

He said: "We were concerned (at 3-2) there's no doubt about that and that was why put an extra midfield player in there to get more in there for winning the knockdowns.

"The questions being asked of us were 'could you win those headers and those knockdowns and come out in control?'

"We put another body in there with Wellens and it worked for us. He calmed the game down a bit and slowed it and we dealt with most of the stuff they flung at us."

But he was delighted again at the impact of two of his scorers Mangan and Whalley.

He added: "They've added pace. We made a decision at a certain stage of the season to do something different because we weren't putting enough dents in defences.

"We never had the pace or movement we believed we needed to score goals at this level.

"We changed that and we brought in pace and big Jean-Louis (Akpa Akpro) is flying as well, and, as we saw today, pace does major damage.

"It causes major headaches and that's been one of the big differences."

The one downside for Town was right wing back Jack Grimmer going off with a tight hamstring at half-time, to be replaced by Dominic Smith.