"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.

"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.

"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.

"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."