Alteration made to Blackpool pre-season fixture to accommodate EUROs fixture

A Seasiders XI take on AFC Blackpool at The Mechanics on Saturday afternoon, in what will be the first outing of the summer for certain members of Neil Critchley’s squad - with mainly development players expected to feature.

The game was due to kick off at 3pm, but has now been brought forward by an hour to 2pm.

This decision has been made due to the progress of England at EURO 2024 in Germany, with their quarter-final tie against Switzerland taking place at 5pm on the same day.

Gareth Southgate’s side scraped past Slovakia in the last 16, with a 95th minute equaliser from Jude Bellingham keeping their tournament alive, before Harry Kane scored the winner in the opening stages of extra time.

Announcing the change to Saturday’s match at The Mechanics, AFC Blackpool wrote: “We tried to get England to kick off at 6pm but they weren’t having it, so we have brought our kick off time back to 2pm.

“Southgate’s now happy he gets to see a proper game.”

The first outing for the majority of the Seasiders squad will come against AFC Fylde at Mill Farm on July 12 (K.O. 7pm), before a break in their schedule which is the expected gap for their pre-season trip to Spain.

They are back in action in a behind-closed-doors friendly against West Brom on July 23, before welcoming Sunderland to Bloomfield Road on July 27.

The pre-season programme is set to come to an end with away trips to Tranmere Rovers (July 30) and Crewe Alexandra (August 3), before their League One campaign gets underway against Crawley Town at Broadfield Stadium on August 10 (K.O. 5.30pm).