Blackpool boss is enjoying life at Bloomfield Road

Pool’s head coach was seen wiping away a tear after celebrating with the 2,000 travelling fans following Saturday’s 1-0 win at Bramall Lane.

The victory, Pool’s third on the spin, sees the Seasiders move up to sixth place in the Championship table.

“I love it,” Critchley told The Gazette when asked about his emotional response to Blackpool’s win.

“I love coming here, I love what we’re doing, I love being around this group and staff, and I love looking up and seeing Simon (Sadler, owner), Brett (Gerrity, director) and Ben (Mansford, chief executive) supporting us.

“It’s good times at the moment for the football club and we want that to continue, but I can assure you none of us get carried away. You can’t afford to.

“We’ve got our feet firmly on the floor and we play with no ego, you can see that.

“There’s no arrogance with the way we play, everyone puts a shift in and we all work hard together and that’s why we’ve been successful, so that won’t change.”

It was another memorable away day for the Seasiders, who tasted victory at Bramall Lane for the first time since 1977.

Blackpool’s fans sang non-stop throughout, even during the first half when their side came under non-stop pressure.

Speaking of the atmosphere, Critchley added: “Brilliant, wasn’t it?

“We were saying before the game what an atmosphere it would be and we actually said how great it would be to score at that end to see the supporters celebrate.

“They obviously went bonkers and rightly so, because Blackpool are a club that haven’t won here for a few years. So to come here, in this type of occasion, and win is a special day.

“What pleased me most is that, against Nottingham Forest, I didn’t feel we were ourselves that day in a big atmosphere – but on this occasion we were.

“In the first 20 minutes, we played some really good football.

“They got on top of us after that but I was really pleased with the courage, the composure and the maturity we showed.”

With Critchley refusing to get too carried away, attention now turns to Wednesday night’s home game against Stoke City.

The Seasiders then take on QPR in front of the Sky Sports camera on Saturday evening before another international break.

“We’ve got two massive games coming up, starting with Stoke who are another big club with ambitions of going up to the Premier League,” Critchley said.

“We said to the players at the start of this run of games, it will give us a good guide of where we might be looking and we’ve started that little run with a fantastic victory, but we’ve got two tough games to come.”

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