Something which angered Stoke City boss Tony Pulis, who believes that the match day official Mr Mike Pike should have stayed overnight. He said to the Stoke Official Site, "It's a serious lack of professionalism by the referee and I'm amazed. He should have used his expenses and stayed here overnight. He chose to travel down the busiest road in the country on the day of the game during a holiday period. Astonishing."

He added, "I had to drag my players in from the warm up, we were all sitting around for half an hour, and then I had to send them out again."

If Stoke had won the game they would have pulled three clear and sat top of the championship. But the draw has dealt a blow to there promotion hopes, however he still believes Stoke still have there fate in there own hands and he even threw in a little compliment for Blackpool claiming they were a "decent side"

He said "We are still in a very strong position and our fate remains in our hands. Blackpool are a decent side and, as I've said many times before, anyone can beat anyone in this division."

Simon Grayson has experienced some odd journey's in time here at Blackpool. Including driving the mini-bus to a reserve game. However having to eat your pre-match meal in the dressing room and having to have your talk on the coach slightly takes the biscuit. Although Grayson insists his side were prepared to kick-off at 3pm.

Simon Grayson told the Blackpool Official Site "We were here and prepared for a 3pm kick-off, but it was us who eventually got the delay. One of our officials contacted the Football League to ask the question. I don't know who actually made the decision, but the answer we got was we could kick off at 3.30pm."

Grayson says he could understand where Pulis is coming from with his complaints, but says the Seasiders set off early enough and the delay was beyond there control. He said "I could understand Stoke's frustration, but we started off from Blackpool at 10am for a 75-minute journey and it took over four hours to get here.

Speaking of the problems he faced going into the match he said "I had to do my team talk on the coach, the players ate some toast and bits of chicken in the dressing room, then we had to get on with it.

Grayson feel's the point is a good one and he told his side that blaming the traffic problems for a poor performance was unnaceptable. In the end they had a good game and won a point something which impressed the manager."I told them I wouldn't accept our problems as an excuse for a poor performance and they rallied to the call. It was a very good point and we could have got all three."

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