Appleton not worried about back to back defeats

The Seasiders lost two games on the bounce at the hands of Rotherham and Millwall before the international break.

However, this doesn’t appear to bother Appleton who has seen some really good moments so far this season.

“We’re going to have back-to-back defeats throughout the season and that’s going to happen to the best teams,” he said.

“There’s been spells over the last two seasons where teams have gone on poor runs, but they’ve been able to cope with that and deal with that and be strong.

“I think it’s been a steady start, in terms of what I’d expect from us.

“We’ve had some really good moments, we’ve had some not so good moments, but on the whole, we’ve been in pretty much every single game we’ve played other than the Rotherham game.”

With just over a month until the Championship season halts once again for the World Cup, Appleton used the international break to cast a careful eye over his team and spoke about the season’s objectives.

“If we get anywhere near close to what the players achieved last year that would be fantastic,” he said.

“That always must be your aim every year, to try and get as close or better than what you did the previous season.

“The only issue with that is the league has become stronger, the money becomes bigger, you’ve got to continue to try and compete.

“We had an inhouse game (during the international break).

“We’ve used it (the break) as wisely as we possibly can, we’ve got some decent training in there, the boys have worked hard and are hopefully ready to go tomorrow.”