Ben Close: Portsmouth defensive resilience shone through in Blackpool draw

The Blues this afternoon collected a 1-1 draw at high-flying Blackpool, having taken an early lead through Marcus Harness.

Armand Gnanduillet levelled matters for the Seasiders on 58 minutes, thumping home a header from Liam Fenney’s cross.

That was enough to ensure the spoils were shared, although, for a sizeable second-half period, Kenny Jackett’s men were challenged defensively.

With Christian Burgess at right-back and Tom Naylor once more at centre-half, the rearguard stood firm to secure a hard-earned point.

And Close was delighted with how the side coped against Simon Grayson’s team.

He said: ‘It’s always the case when you take the lead in games, you are disappointed when you don’t win, so that is something we can look at.

‘Considering how early they scored in the second half, to hold out and then maybe look like the team more likely to score at the end, was pleasing.

‘They put us under a real amount of pressure, balls into the box, good bits of play from them, us conceding sloppy set-pieces and giving them the chance to put it into the box.

‘There are things for us to work on, yet, overall, it was a good defensive display.

‘I know we allowed them into the box a few times, but from there we did limit them to very few clear-cut chances.’