Blackpool boss Neil Critchley will stick to his principles after slow start

The Seasiders take on Lincoln City this weekend on the back of two defeats from their opening three league games.

Blackpool conceded early on in both games they lost, which gave Plymouth Argyle and Gillingham something to hang onto.

“The way the games have gone have definitely played into the opposition’s hands. When you concede in the fourth minute, the game then changes straight away,” Critchley said.

“I’d like to say that was the opposition’s game plan, to stay behind the ball, but maybe we forced them into doing that and maybe they just did that naturally because they went 1-0 up and have something to hold onto.

“It would have been clearer had it been 0-0 after 30 minutes to get an idea of what their plan was.

“Our philosophy won’t change. We want to be a team that wants to dominate the ball, we want to be a possession-based team.

“I’m a believer that you get to decide what you do with the ball because you’re in control.

“We didn’t make the right decisions against Gillingham on Saturday but that was our fault, it wasn’t Gillingham deciding what was happening. It was us and unfortunately we weren’t good enough to make the right decisions.

“But as a coach, I’d much rather be the team that has the ball than the team that doesn’t have the ball.”

It gets no easier for Pool, with tomorrow’s opponents Lincoln sitting second in the League One table after winning all three games to date.

“We’re playing against a team that is bang in form and winning games, so we know it’s going to be a really tough game,” Critchley added.

“We’re at home, so it’s up to us to impose our style on them. We want to be more of a goal threat than what we were last week but we know it’s going to be tough because they’re winning games and they’re not conceding many goals.

“They’ve got a way of playing that is definitely frustrating for teams so it’s up to us to make sure we remain patient and don’t get frustrated.”