Phil Brown felt the injury sustained by Caleb Folan disrupted the flow of his side as they went down to a 2-1 defeat at Blackpool on Monday night.

Folan was stretchered from the field and taken to hospital mid-way through the second half following a nasty clash of heads with Blackpool defender Kaspars Gorkss and Brown felt his side's performance wasn't as good once the record signing was replaced.

"The injury certainly upset the flow of our team," said Brown.

"I thought Caleb was performing as well as I've seen for a debut. But it was a serious collision and he was unconscious for a number of minutes.

"He was conscious and talking as he came off, which was a good sign and he'll stay in hospital overnight."

Although disappointed to come away with a defeat, Brown praised the competitive nature of the game and felt his side deserved a draw.

"People saw two committed teams last night and it was certainly a blood and guts encounter.

"Nobody was pulling out of any tackles, but unfortunately one team had to come out as winners and we weren't that team.

"As we went into the latter stages of the game, Stuart Elliott had a couple of chances to put us in front, but I think Simon Grayson (Blackpool manager) would probably say the same because they had one or two chances as well.

"It looked as though it was going to fizzle out into a draw, but unfortunately we were on the end of a defeat.

"The warning signs from last year haven't completely gone away. The way we conceded a goal just after half time was disappointing, as was the way we conceded the second goal.

"You can blame individuals if you like, but the whole team was responsible."

Blackpool's winner came eight minutes into added time from the head of former Tiger Ben Burgess and Brown admitted it was a blow to lose so late on.

"It was 98 minutes, but there was always going to be ten or eleven minutes added on at the end, so in effect you could say the goal came on 86 or 87 minutes.

"But of course it was a blow. It's not nice to lose any game of football and if we'd got a point I would have been ecstatic.

"However, we've come away with nothing and it's back to the drawing board in time for the Stoke game a week on Saturday."