AS THE multicoloured lights warmed up on Blackpool Tower, peering ominously over Bloomfield Road, you longed for something to add some similar pizzazz to Wanderers on the pitch.

With Mark Davies ruled out it fell to Chung-Yong Lee to dazzle and create. By the end, the Korean maestro had done just enough to earn his team a point. But on an afternoon that generally lacked illumination, did Neil Lennon allow his thoughts to drift towards a player who fans are longing to see in a Wanderers shirt once more?

Eidur Gudjohnsen wasn’t at the game but might as well have been sitting in the middle of 2,200 travelling fans for the number of times his name was chanted. At 36 he is a gamble, even in the short term. His CV does include Chelsea, Barcelona and Monaco – but his recent outings have been in more meagre surroundings, Brugge, Athens... Stoke.

Yet the word from the training ground suggests he has lost none of the magic with the ball at his feet that Wanderers fans saw back when he stormed into English football.

The more the Whites toiled on a cabbage patch of a surface, the more you wondered if even the Icelandic legend could make a difference. But then Jacob Murphy dragged the game out of its gloom with a stunning free-kick for the hosts, equalised eight minutes before the end by another crisp finish from Chung-Yong.

It was only then you realised quite how bad the previous three-quarters of the game had been. No wonder Lennon questioned whether his side had that same spark shown against Cardiff and Wigan before the international break. For a good hour they struggled to put passes together, or dictate a game to a Blackpool side whose lack of quality was more than subsidised by a surplus of effort.

Much of the pre-match talk had been about Chris Eagles, and whether he would even feature against his former club after nearly nine months away from competitive football. He did, and but for one early effort from the edge of the box made little impression. Quite why some Whites fans chose to jeer him is anyone’s guess.

Wanderers’ football was as patchy as the pitch. Chung-Yong continued to buzz round and went mighty close midway through the first half when his shot bounced off the foot of the post.

Likewise, Blackpool’s Jacob Mellis was left cursing the woodwork when his shot deflected off Dorian Dervite and on to Lonergan’s crossbar.

The turning point came moments before half-time. Tom Kennedy, who had been playing for Bury on loan from Rochdale only a couple of weeks ago, played a dreadful back-pass seized on by Craig Davies, who was brought down by keeper Joe Lewis on the edge of the box.

Wanderers claimed a penalty, and by extension a sending off.

Referee Nigel Miller looked on the verge of granting both wishes before having a lengthy chat with his assistant and awarding neither.

Lennon’s displeasure was clear, his mood not helped by a poor free-kick from Tim Ream. And by all accounts, his demeanour had not improved by the break when his half-time talk addressed some of his side’s shortfalls in no uncertain terms. Things improved in the second half, although not to anything like the levels seen before the international break. Wide men Liam Feeney and Max Clayton could not find space, while Davies ran himself into the ground with little reward up front.

Jay Spearing came off the bench to get the ball moving in midfield. He upped the tempo but also gave away the free-kick, which gave Murphy the chance to curl the ball expertly around the wall past Lonergan for the opening goal. Thankfully, the goal provoked a response. Matt Mills lumped a corner back into the penalty box, flicked on by Dervite via a deflection off David Perkins, and Chung-Yong was there to rifle home his third goal in four games.

Rob Hall was thrown on for his first taste of league football since the end of last season and showed up well, driving one cross along the six yard box and agonisingly close to Neil Danns’ outstretched boot, and also finding Davies 10-yards out, only for his header to drift wide.

In the end a point felt like all Wanderers deserved, although one wonders how quickly the game would have run away from the home side had they been reduced to 10 men before the break. It was a reality check given the euphoria following wins against Cardiff and Wigan. Not that Lennon had got carried away. He had questioned whether his side were really in the frame of mind to maintain the momentum. His assessment was spot on.

But the way Wanderers got back into the game also hints that the squad is made of stronger stuff these days. Not so long ago there probably wouldn’t have been such a decisive response – and had they lost, it would have been a psychological hit to find themselves back in the bottom three.

It now becomes a question of what the club feel can be salvaged from this season. The Whites look a safe bet to avoid trouble even without adding much to their ranks, such has been Lennon’s impact on attitude and application. But if they, like many fans, are daring to dream, someone with a touch of attacking class is an absolute must. And such players don’t come cheap.

Is Gudjohnsen that man, or are fans caught up on the player he was a decade ago? Only time will tell.