Terry McPhillips looks to loan market for Blackpool's business in transfer window

But the loan route is one avenue open to the Seasiders, with a slot becoming available when Callum Guy’s move from Derby County becomes permanent at the start of the month.

McPhillips was seen deep in conversation with Crystal Palace ambassador and former player Mark Bright at Kingsmeadow on Saturday, both before and after Pool’s 0-0 draw)AFC Wimbledon.

He was joined by Palace youngster Nya Kirby, an 18-year-old midfielder who was a member of England’s Under-17 World Cup-winning squad last year.

McPhillips said: “We’re working on a couple but we won’t be doing a lot, that’s for sure. There’s not a lot of money available.

“It might be a case of seeing a couple go out and having a couple come in but we need a couple of new faces to freshen it up.”

McPhillips pointed to Pool’s lack of quality in attacking areas following the stalemate at Wimbledon.

The Seasiders could have won the game but Armand Gnanduillet and Harry Pritchard squandered gilt-edged opportunities.

But McPhillips remained positive about the result, which kept Pool in eighth place in League One and brought an end to their three-game losing run.

He added: “It’s a clean sheet away from home, so we’ll take the point and dust ourselves down.

“We’re really at the bare bones with the squad, with those injured, suspended and not available for other reasons.

“So fair play to the squad for churning out such a performance at such a tough place to come. The timing for playing them was wrong for us.

“Wally Downes has done a great job since coming in at Wimbledon and they’d won two games on the bounce, so they were at home and were buzzing.

“You’ve got to match their fight and I think we did that. You’ve then got to try and play more football and I thought we did that but it was always going to be a scrap.

“They’re just relentless sticking it on you, which we expected and that’s what they did, so they didn’t let us down there.

“In the end it could have been a scrappy toe-poke or a ricochet that won the game for either team.

“It was an entertaining 0-0, like we’ve had in the past, but I thought we had the better chances.

“They had their moments and we had scraps in both boxes.

“But it’s a clean sheet, which is a positive, but if we want to win games we need to start scoring goals, so it’s just that bit of extra quality that we lacked.

“That wasn’t for the want of trying but there were one or two who were not quite on it.”