Paul Heckingbottom tells Sheffield United: 'It's not a good point having been 2-0 up' as he refuses to hide behind controversies

The Blades took a 2-0 lead at Bramall Lane, only to allow the Tangerines to score three themselves.

After Dominic Thompson and Marvin Ekpiteta were sent off for Blackpool, Sheffield United missed a penalty, had a goal controversially disallowed and still managed to claim an Oliver Norwood equaliser in the ninth added minute.

Even that was not the end of it, with Wes Foderingham and Shayne Lavery sent off for wrestling in a post-match melee whcih featured almost all the players who finished the game, a few who did not and the coaching staffs.

But Heckingbottom preferred to focus on the football, and why he did not think his team had been good enough as they dropped points for the fourth game running.

"It's not a good point having been 2-0 up but the situation we put ourselves in, to come back, you've got to accept that," said Heckingbottom.

"Anel (Ahmedhodzic)'s onside (when his potential equaliser was chalked off for offside.) But then you're going to ask me about the penalty and the handball, forget it. I'm not going to sit here and moan about the referees.

"Regardless of those decisions should we have won? Yeah.

"We've put ourselves in a position we have to chase, which is in our control. We've created enough chances to win the game, which is in our control, and we've not done it.

"Of course you want people to do their jobs properly but I'm not going to hide behind the refs not doing their jobs, that's for somebody else to take care of.

"We've been two up without playing brilliantly with two real good moments of play. We were still wasteful with the ball.

"Letting Blackpool back in the game, it was all about the second ball. Even when Wes kicked long we were slow to get up, we were poor on second balls in midfield and it allowed them to get those little bits of momentum

"The third goal, we were better second half at defending those things but Eags (John Egan) makes an interception straight into the path of (Kenny) Dougal, its one of those things. But we've put ourselves in that position.

"After that we looked like the team we wanted to be but we were wasteful and when they went down to nine we had a lot more space, created even more chances and didn't take them."

Likewise, Appleton said he will appeal Lavery's red card but accepted the other two his side received.

"I thought it was a little bit soft but I get it," said Appleton of Ekpiteta's red card for hacking down Rhian Brewster after an earlier foul on Billy Sharp. "I'm not sure it would have happened down the other end.

"The second was just a bit of stupidity from one of our younger players who will learn from it.

"I don't quite understand the one at the end of the game. All I saw was Shayne Lavery getting wrestled to the ground and we'll see if we can get a better outcome. He was trying to pull people away from the officials.

"Having seen a little bit of footage we'll try and put our case across."

Despite running across to it, Heckingbottom did not get there in time to see the incident.

"I just saw them both on the floor," he said.

"I spoke with their staff about it and it looks as if Lavery's come and grabbed Wes to keep him out of the way and as he's spun they've both grappled each other and fallen over as if they've tripped each other up.

"They didn't seem to think anything had happened but if the ref's seen two lads on the floor, he's thinking they're fighting. I've not seen it. I'm just going off their staff but we'll have to have a look and a think about it.

"I've gone over to get our lads out of the way because we can't afford any more gone and I'm sick to death with it so I want them out of the way. You're not going to win anything after the game.

"There's a little bit of commotion going off and I think it's just escalated."

Appleton felt Norwood's goal should not have stood but again did not dwell on it."There was a foul (on goalkeeper Chris Maxwell)," said the former midfielder.

"Them things can be missed and you can forgive them (the officials) to a degree but there were also three player clearly in front of Chris as the shot's about to be taken who were all offside.

"Them type of things, you need to get the right call."

"To compete as well as we did with the quality they had on the pitch was pleasing. At 11 v 11 I couldn't have been more comfortable on the sideline.

"We knew we were really dangerous and they knew it.

"I thought we deservedly went ahead and I felt quite relaxed because I knew we'd have to defend but I knew we'd be a threat on the counter."

Heckingbottom revealed forward Oli McBurnie was on the bench because he has been playing with a hernia problem recently.