Blackpool boss has a warning for the Seasiders' squad

Saturday’s goalless draw at Accrington Stanley means the Seasiders will spend Christmas Day in 12th place in the League One table, five points off the play-offs.

Given Blackpool’s slow start to the campaign, it’s no surprise Critchley is feeling better about his players’ chances given their turnaround in fortunes.

With 28 games still to go, Pool’s head coach knows there’s plenty of room for improvement.

“Managers always want more, we always want to be better,” Critchley said.

“I’m satisfied after the start we made, because we’ve made progress.

“Maybe early on at the beginning of the season we’d have lost this sort of game, but we’re still nowhere near what we’re going to be at the minute.

“There are still a million and one things we can work on as a team, we’ll get better and we’ll improve.

“There’s not a lot in the division, the table suggests that, and if we can keep our consistency, have a bit of luck here and there with injuries and suspensions, then I think in the second half of the season we can improve where we are in the table at this moment in time.”

The Seasiders were far from their best at the weekend but they dug in to pick up a ninth clean sheet from their last 12 games.

“It was swirling wind and the rain came down and the pitch is heavy, it was difficult for both sets of players,” Critchley added.

“With Accrington being at home, they were a bit more used to it than we were.

“Up until the end of the game, I never thought our goal was under too much threat.

“They got on top of us near the end, they built some momentum, they got a lot of balls forward and behind our defence, and a lot of balls into the box.

“As a team, we defended extremely well so the character, the fight and that spirit you need, it’s not always going to be pretty football. I thought we weren’t lacking in any of those areas.”

Blackpool had been due to make the trip to the North East tomorrow night to face Sunderland.

However, that game was postponed last week following a Covid-19 outbreak at the Stadium of Light.

When asked if Blackpool’s mini-break comes at a good time ahead of the Boxing Day clash against Rochdale, Critchley said: “We’re in good form and going to Sunderland is a game you always look forward to.

“We’ve got some rhythm to how we’re playing and the players will tell you when you’re in form and winning, albeit we’ve drawn at Accrington, you want the next game to come as quickly as possible.

“We were looking forward to Sunderland, we were ready for that game so we’re probably more disappointed than we are happy about that being postponed.”

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