Ben Heneghan in contention for Blackpool call-up to face MK Dons

Blackpool boss Simon Grayson has admitted Ben Heneghan will come into consideration for a first league start of the season this weekend.
Ben Heneghan could be in line for his first league start of the seasonBen Heneghan could be in line for his first league start of the season
Ben Heneghan could be in line for his first league start of the season
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The 25-year-old, who did start in the EFL Trophy win against Morecambe last week, is now likely to come into the back three for Saturday’s home game against MK Dons.

It comes after some uncharacteristic defensive mistakes from the Seasiders proved their downfall in the 3-2 defeat to Coventry City last weekend.

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Grayson said: “I was contemplating bringing Ben in for Coventry but the team had done ever so well.

“I have brought players to the club to enhance the squad and Ben will certainly do that. But there are other players who will come into the fray for next week because as a manager that’s what you do.

“You look at what you can bring in and what you can change, but you’ve also got to be realistic – you don’t make drastic changes for the sake of it when your team is doing really well.”

One man who did impress against Coventry was winger Sullay Kaikai, who scored his first brace for the club.

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Kaikai’s goals saw Grayson’s men race into a deserved 2-0 lead but they returned home empty-handed after the Sky Blues fought back to win it at the death.

When asked about Kaikai’s impressive display, Grayson said: “We worked on things during the week that we knew could hurt them.

“They play with the two full-backs quite high and we knew we could exploit the space left behind.

“It was a great position to be in but we gave them that momentum which really gave them a lift.

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“Had we gone in at 2-1 at half-time, you could regroup and readdress the situation. But at 2-2 it had really given them a massive lift.

“We gave the ball away too cheaply. Every time we won the ball back we gave it straight back to them.

“When you’re playing against a team that handle the ball really well and move it around, then it can be really hard work.

“That’s another thing we have to do better to manage things but it was very disappointing to concede the third so late on.

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“We had enough bodies back there but we just didn’t do the basics right.

“We didn’t stay with the runner and we didn’t react to the loose ball that dropped. That was the case for all three goals.

“We don’t react to certain stages of the move, which is what you need to do to keep clean sheets.

“We say week in, week out, ‘Make sure you are ruthless in both boxes’, but first half we might have been ruthless at the top end of the pitch but we weren’t ruthless in the defensive area.”