Blackpool 2-1 Barrow: Seasiders maintain winning start to pre-season with victory against David Dunn's League Two newcomers

The midfielder slotted home seven minutes from time as Neil Critchley’s men won for the third consecutive game.

Jordan Thorniley had earlier given Blackpool the lead on their long-awaited return to Bloomfield Road with a looping header, with what was his first goal in tangerine colours.

But the Seasiders looked as though they were going to be denied after Dior Angus levelled for the League Two newcomers, only for Virtue to strike the decisive blow in the final 10 minutes.

James Husband returned from a slight hamstring complaint to start the game on the bench, while Jamie Devitt - linked with a move away from Bloomfield Road - was involved for the first time in pre-season.

Calum Macdonald, Ben Garrity, Joe Nuttall were all missing, the latter left out after suffering a knock to his knee in the weekend win at Port Vale.

Trialist goalkeeper Alex Fojticek, who has featured at both Southport and Port Vale, was involved in the warm-up but didn’t feature in the game.

Former Seasiders Scott Quigley, Neil Danns and youngster Will McGladdery were all named in Dunn’s Barrow squad.

The early exchanges saw the Seasiders dominate, forcing a few early corners. However, the visitors dealt with them fairly comfortably.

The first clear-cut opening of the afternoon fell the way of the men in tangerine, with Grant Ward the man involved.

It all started from a clever forward ball from Jordan Thorniley, the defender picking out Ward’s run into the Barrow box.

The midfielder took the ball down well on his thigh but couldn’t quite find the target with his powerful shot, arrowing his effort just wide.

Barrow responded with two opportunities of their own, Michael Nottingham doing well to clear Morgan Penfold’s pullback after the away side had sprung the offside trap but Lewis Hardcastle tested Chris Maxwell at his near post with a low free-kick.

At the other end, Pool continued to press and probe their opponents as CJ Hamilton saw a powerful shot well blocked after skipping a couple of challenges on the edge of the box.

A lull in proceedings fullowed, with both sides remaining competitive without ever coming to life in the final third.

Barrow briefly threatened to break the deadlock as Jack Hindle found some space inside the Blackpool area only to drag his shot wide.

At the other end, Hamilton ought to have given the Seasiders the lead after doing superbly to engineer a one-on-one with the keeper only to be denied by a smart save by Joel Dixon.

But there was nothing Dixon could do a minute later to stop Jordan Thorniley from giving Pool the lead, the defender meeting Oliver Sarkic’s corner to loop home a header.

Barrow finished the half strongly and probably ought to have levelled after creating two good openings to do so.