Blackpool beats nine-man West Brom 2-1
Blackpool beats nine-man West Brom 2-1
Blackpool's win, which follows two straight defeats, moved them from 15th to ninth in the league table.

Blackpool: Blackpool took advantage of two early red cards for West Bromwich Albion to win 2-1 on Monday and move up to ninth in the Premier League.

West Brom was down to nine men inside half an hour and when Luke Varney's tap-in made it 2-0 after Charlie Adam had put his side ahead with a penalty, Blackpool looked in control.

But it was a frantic finish at a soggy Bloomfield Road as West Brom pulled a goal back through Youssouf Mulumbu with five minutes remaining.

Blackpool held on, however, for a first home win of the season and its first home win in the top flight since 1971.

West Brom, promoted with Blackpool and Newcastle this season, suffered its first league defeat since August and stays sixth in the table.

Blackpool's win, which follows two straight defeats, moved them from 15th to ninth.

West Brom was down to 10 men after only 10 minutes when Pablo Ibanez was rightly penalised for blocking DJ Campbell in the area but then harshly sent off.

Even Blackpool manager Ian Holloway thought Ibanez was unlucky to receive a red card.

"I'd prefer a yellow card (to Ibanez) and the penalty," Holloway told a TV channel. "It's a great move, probably the best of the game, a great ball from Charlie (Adam) to DJ Campbell, who has turned him. But is it really a sending off? I thought that ruined the game as a spectacle."

The visitors suffered more bad luck when keeper Scott Carson guessed the right way but could not keep out Adam's resulting penalty kick.

West Brom's evening took another turn for the worse in the 29th, although this time there was no ill fortune involved. Gonzalo Jara received a deserved red card for a wild — and completely unnecessary — tackle on Varney by the corner flag.

If Jara sought sympathy from his manager, he did not get it.

"I think he called it right, the referee," said Martinez, who also agreed with the penalty decision for Ibanez's challenge if not the sending off. "The player lost his head a bit after the first decision but he made a terrible tackle and made a mistake."

But even after Jara's departure, Martinez's men refused to give in and with Blackpool becoming more and more nervous as a vital win loomed, it made for an entertaining match despite the torrential rain.

Varney finished off a neat move in the 62nd, slotting home Elliot Grandin's cross, but it failed to settle the nerves inside Bloomfield Road.

Mulumbu gave West Brom hope with a brilliant individual goal, expertly controlling the ball before beating his marker with a couple of stepovers and curling a right-foot finish inside the far post.

That set up a grandstand finish and Steven Reid almost snatched an unlikely equaliser for the visitors but blazed his effort over the bar.

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