Blackpool frustrated by Stoke

Blackpool's hopes of survival were dealt a major blow as they failed to find a way past Stoke at Bloomfield Road.

The Tangerines showed plenty of grit but for the first time they failed to score at home this season.

Kenwyne Jones had the best chance of the game for Stoke as he rounded Matt Gilks and missed an open goal in first-half injury-time.

It seems like every week that Blackpool have a penalty appeal and so it proved when DJ Campbell collided with Glen Whelan but the referee failed to award anything.

Blackpool now have just three games left of the season to retain their Premier League status and, with games against Tottenham, Bolton and Manchester United left, they face an uphill challenge.

Home boss Ian Holloway named an unchanged team, while Potters boss Tony Pulis made one enforced adjustment from the 3-0 victory over Wolves on Tuesday, replacing hamstring injury victim Matthew Etherington with Dean Whitehead.

Blackpool carved out the first goalscoring opportunity after six minutes, Stephen Crainey whipping in a cross and Campbell heading over the bar.

Collected

Two minutes later Matt Phillips collected a loose ball and tried his luck from outside the area, but skewed his shot wide.

Soon after Charlie Adam attempted to burst through and collided with Whelan and Robert Huth, with the latter's foot appearing to make contact with the Blackpool captain's head. Adam looked to be in some pain, but was able to continue.

Having soaked up some pressure, Stoke got their first strike in on goal as Huth saw a shot blocked by Crainey, but the Potters defence was then almost caught napping when a long ball sailed over their heads, Marc Wilson just on hand to make sure Phillips could not take advantage.

Stoke broke forward again with Rory Delap delivering a cross into the danger zone, but Alex Baptiste did enough to avert the danger.

Neal Eardley sliced well off-target having been teed up in the box before his defensive colleague Ian Evatt made a great tackle at the other end to stop Jones advancing.

Blackpool then won a free-kick in a useful area following Whelan's foul on David Vaughan, but Adam could only find the Stoke wall with the effort.

Gary Taylor-Fletcher got on the end of a cross from Evatt four minutes before the interval but was unable to get much power behind his header, which Begovic gathered comfortably.

Survived

The hosts then survived a real scare in first-half stoppage-time when they lost possession and the ball came to Jones, who took it around Gilks as Evatt slipped over.

It seemed like a simple finish for the former Sunderland striker, but he somehow contrived to blaze wide and the score remained 0-0.

Phillips went close at the start of the second half but his flick towards goal from Adam's corner was saved by Begovic.

Keith Southern then fired an effort in which took a deflection off his team-mate Campbell and went narrowly wide.

Stoke responded with a swerving shot from Whelan which Gilks dived to palm away and a downward header from Jones that was scrambled clear, while

Pulis threw on Ryan Shotton for Andy Wilkinson.

Blackpool fans appealed for a penalty when Campbell got in a tangle with Whelan in the box, but referee Mark Clattenburg waved play on, and Vaughan tried a drive from distance which flew over.

Holloway refreshed his attack with just under 20 minutes to go, bringing on Luke Varney and Sergei Kornilenko for Phillips and Taylor-Fletcher.

Pulis made another substitution of his own, introducing John Carew for Delap, before Whelan sent a fierce shot wide.