'We'll take it one game at a time': Neil Critchley looks ahead to Blackpool's double header with Joey Barton and Fleetwood Town

The Seasiders make the short trip to Highbury twice in four days, beginning on Saturday with this season’s first league meeting between the two sides.

Neil Critchley’s side then return on Tuesday night, as they look to progress in the first knockout stage of the EFL Trophy against Joey Barton’s men.

“I think you can only take one game at a time, although of course you have to keep one eye on Tuesday,” Critchley said.

“I’d be lying if I said there won’t be any changes for the game on Tuesday, because there will be.

“But the league game on Saturday is the most important game. We look forward to it, we’ll prepare for that and then we’ll look to the game on Tuesday when we’ll pick what we believe is the right team for that game.

“As I’ve said continuously, we want to be in all of the competitions and we want to win every game and we’ve got two games against Fleetwood coming up.

“The first one is the most important one and then we look towards Tuesday night trying to progress in a competition we want to do well in.”

Blackpool head into the game on the back of an impressive run of form which has seen them win in seven of their last eight games in all competitions.

Fleetwood, who sit in eighth place in the table, four points ahead of the Seasiders, are performing well themselves despite stuttering to a 1-0 defeat at Northampton Town on Tuesday night.

“Fleetwood are a side that have steadily improved and they’ll be looking to do that again,” Critchley said.

“I’m sure Joey will be confident with the squad of players he’s got that they can have a very good season.

“They play a really high energy game of football, they’re competitive and in football the team often resembles the coach and I think Fleetwood’s team resembles Joey, which is a great compliment to him.

“Fleetwood have a side packed full of experienced players and they’ve brought in a lot of players themselves. Their team now compared to the team that started the season is different.

“They’ve got experience in their squad but they’ve got quality in their squad as well.

“They’ve been on a good run of form until Tuesday night at Northampton, so they’ll be looking to bounce back at home.

“It will be a really difficult game of football for us.”

It’s a huge shame the rivalry will be contested behind closed doors, but Critchley is hoping the return of supporters isn’t too far away.

“It’s been a crazy time but hopefully there’s a little bit of normality getting closer to returning,” Critchley said.

“We obviously saw some of the fans returning to the games on Wednesday night and you just keep your fingers crossed that ourselves and Fleetwood in this area will be the beneficiaries of that in the very near future.”

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