Blackpool players who under-perform will be left out warns Neil Critchley

It comes after Sullay Kaikai was a surprise absentee from the squad for Saturday’s defeat at Bristol Rovers.

It followed a below-par display from the winger four days earlier in Pool’s 1-0 loss at Shrewsbury Town, where he failed to influence the game in attack and conceded the needless penalty that decided the match.

Kaikai isn’t the only player to find himself out of favour in recent weeks, with Daniel Gretarsson, MJ Williams and Oliver Sarkic also failing to make Critchley’s 18-man squads.

When asked about Kaikai’s absence at the Memorial Stadium, Pool’s head coach told The Gazette: “It was just a change.

“As I’m stressing to the players all the time, we have a good-quality squad. It’s a competitive squad and if you want to play, if you want to stay in the team, then you have to play well and you have to produce.

“That was my message to the players on Saturday. We can’t keep waiting and we can’t keep saying, ‘Hard luck’.

“We want to win games and we want to be where we feel we can be at the end of the season.

“With the quality we have on the pitch, they have to produce in those moments and they haven’t done that on Saturday.”

Despite a second consecutive defeat, the Seasiders were in much better form at Bristol Rovers.

Critchley, whose side face Premier League club West Bromwich Albion in the third round of the FA Cup at Bloomfield Road this Saturday, was pleased with Pool’s improvement after the drab defeat to Shrewsbury.

“We had a reaction,” he said. “It wasn’t a lack of urgency, intensity or passion (that led to the defeat).

“I actually felt we competed very well in the game, other than the 10-15 minutes at the start of the second half, but you’d expect the home team to have a spell.

“If we were playing at home and an away team dominated us like that, then I’d be worried.

“We’ve been the dominant team and not done enough in front of goal, which makes losing even harder to take.

“It’s frustrating we haven’t a midweek game to put things right, especially after the 10-day break we had over Christmas.

“We’re fresh, we’re ready to go and I think that after that little disruptive break of back-to-back postponements we weren’t at it on Tuesday night.

“But we blew the cobwebs off in that game and you see us back to our normal selves at Bristol Rovers.

“We want to carry on playing and we have an FA Cup game to come now.

“It will be a tough game against Premier League opposition but it’s a chance for us to really have a go at home and try to get into the fourth round of the competition.”

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