Blackpool boss Neil Critchley praised the character of his entire squad after he made six changes and still secured a 4-0 win at Harrogate in the FA Cup.

Luke Garbutt, Grant Ward and Jordan Gabriel – none of whom started the 3-2 midweek defeat at Doncaster – put the Seasiders in the ascendancy at Wetherby Road, before substitute Dan Kemp, who did not even make the squad for the Keepmoat clash, rounded off matters.

Home defender Kevin Lokko was sent off after 90 minutes – prior to Kemp’s goal – for hacking down striker Gary Madine on a miserable afternoon for Harrogate, who were bidding to reach the third round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history.

A delighted Critchley said: “We’ve got a busy, intense period of games, so I wanted to bring more energy and freshness into the team and I thought the players did great, as did the subs that came on.

“That athleticism on the pitch gave them real problems and we are happy with four goals, a clean sheet and getting through to the third round. Every game we play I want to win and winning breeds habits at a club.

“I want a certain standard of work and I’m not happy to sit back for draws. I want to take everything to the opposition and go as far as we can in every competition that we are in.

“The cup is a fantastic tournament – the best in the world – and the types of people I have in my dressing room will give me everything and keep going right to the end.”

Blackpool had survived a scare just past the quarter-hour mark when Harrogate top-scorer Jack Muldoon burst clear on goal after Danny Ballard had misjudged a long hoof forward by home keeper James Belshaw.

But Marvin Ekpiteta made an excellent sliding recovery tackle on Muldoon to spare his central-defensive partner’s blushes.

It then took a freak goal to break the deadlock in the 50th minute when Garbutt’s corner, delivered from the right, swung over Belshaw and landed inside the home keeper’s far upright.

Belshaw then reacted smartly to make an excellent double save to deny Ben Woodburn and CJ Hamilton, but he was beaten for a second time in the 59th minute from the subsequent corner.

The flag-kick, delivered again by Garbutt but from the left this time, was only cleared as far as the edge of the box, where Ward drove low and hard into the home net.

On-loan Nottingham Forest full-back Gabriel made it 3-0 in the 85th minute tapping in from a yard after substitute Demetri Mitchell had charged through the right channel and struck an upright.

After Lokko was dismissed, Kemp then nodded in from a similar distance when Garbutt’s stoppage-time free-kick was headed down by Mitchell.

Unlike Critchley, home boss Simon Weaver felt changes to his defence, which were enforced by injury, probably had an adverse effect on his team’s performance.

He said: “We were looking pretty good at half-time and I thought we were solid and compact defensively. They hadn’t caused us too many problems and we looked fairly well organised.

“But goals change the rhythm of games and the first we conceded from a set-piece was a shocker. They then got another goal from a set-piece and, from then on, started looking like a very good League One side.

“We needed to be more dominant at corners, but we had big changes to our back line and maybe we did not quite have the understanding that our usual back four would have done.”