Simon Grayson explains Blackpool's free weekend and why he decided to cancel Spennymoor friendly

Simon Grayson has explained his reasoning behind cancelling Blackpool’s scheduled pre-season friendly at Spennymoor Town yesterday.
Grayson working alongside his new assistant Ian MillerGrayson working alongside his new assistant Ian Miller
Grayson working alongside his new assistant Ian Miller
Read More
Blackpool defender Curtis Tilt still wanted by Rotherham despite contract offer

The Seasiders were due to take on the non-league side at Shildon AFC’s ground on Saturday to coincide with the end of their six-day training camp in Scotland.

It had been arranged that the Pool players would get on the coach from St Andrews to the stadium, a journey that would have taken around four hours.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, Grayson believed that wasn’t the right preparation for his squad and decided to cancel the match, taking charge of an inter-squad 11 v 11 game instead.

“I looked at the schedule and I thought going to Spennymoor was a long way out of our way really,” Grayson told The Gazette.

“Geographically it didn’t work and Spennymoor were fine with that.

“Instead we’ll do a session in the morning, we’ll do a double session Thursday and Friday and we’ll have an 11-a-side game, an in-house game which I can control a little bit more.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“If I go to Spennymoor I can’t really stop and start it like I want to do, so that will be the schedule.”

The Seasiders return to action on Tuesday night, where they make the short trip to Mill Farm to take on AFC Fylde.

Grayson spent his first week at the helm in Scotland with the rest of the squad for a six-day training camp.

There he got his first chance to take a look at the players at his disposal.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I think work-wise, attitude-wise they have been good and they can handle the ball. You saw them pop it around against Dundee," the Pool boss said.

“We’ve just got to make sure we do better as a group that we keep clean sheets. It was a hallmark of the group last year, I’m not getting away from that, but you have to set your base.

“I think we all know we need improvements at the top end of the pitch, whether it’s the players here who are more creative or maybe one or two more signings will help us in that department.

“They’ve just got to keep going out, working hard as a group and see where it takes them.”