Blackpool boss Simon Grayson won’t be fazed by their recent results

The Seasiders now find themselves in 12th place in League One after losing three of their four league games over Christmas.

It leaves them two points adrift of the play-offs and a further seven points away from the top two.

Grayson said: “We weren’t getting too carried away when we were winning games on the trot and beating Fleetwood, drawing at Ipswich and beating Peterborough, so we won’t get too disappointed with this run either.

“But of course we are frustrated we haven’t picked up as many points as we would have liked.

“I was asked before the Christmas period whether this will be a defining run of games for us and I said it won’t make or break us, irrespective of whether we get loads of points or not many.

“That’s because there’s still so much football to be played and the players we’re bringing to the club will make us go from okay to being a better team.”

When it was put to Grayson that a better points haul over Christmas would have put the Seasiders right in contention for automatic promotion, he added: “It could have been a lot worse, that’s how you’ve got to look at it as well.

“We’ve not had a great Christmas yet we’re still only two points off the play-offs. That just sums up how crazy the division is at this moment in time.

“I spoke to Paul Warne after the game against Rotherham and he says we’re one of the strongest teams they’ve played in both of the games. That shows you what other teams think about us.

“Over the last few games we’ve not quite had the breaks, we’ve probably not played as well as we could have done to win matches.

“We’re in a position where we’ve given ourselves a platform. Of course we would have liked more points over Christmas but we’re still in with a strong chance of getting where we want to get to at the end of the season.

“Hopefully everybody realises that. We’re strengthening and we’re in a good place to kick on.”