Blackpool's cup humbling won't impact players against Swansea City, according to Michael Appleton

The Seasiders crashed out of the Carabao Cup at the first round stage on Tuesday night after losing on penalties following a goalless draw.

Appleton’s much-changed side delivered a below-par display, but Pool’s head coach insists that won’t affect how his side perform against the Swans on Saturday afternoon.

“I think the way a couple of our chances came and went, it was almost written (that Barrow would win on penalties),” Appleton said.

“I’ve never seen so many chances from a yard out, it just didn’t quite happen for us. But it’s one of them.

“We will lick our wounds, it won’t affect the players too much. They know from a performance point of view there wasn’t an awful lot wrong.

“But I think when you progress in the cups it can happen two ways, can’t it? You can either create a bit of momentum with your league form or it can become an issue and a problem.

“I would have preferred to go through because I’ve got a decent record in cup competitions, so I wanted to do it again. But it hasn’t happened.

“Who knows? It might actually work in our favour.”

One of very few positives to come out of Tuesday night’s setback was the returns of Jordan Gabriel and James Husband from injury.

The duo, who have both been sidelined with hamstring injuries, performed well during their 30-minute cameos off the bench.

“That was really pleasing, seeing them two play. They looked full of life as well, they looked fit and strong,” Appleton said.

“Clearly they’re not in a certain physical state to do more than an hour, so the instructions from the medical team were not to give them more than 30 minutes and that’s what we did.

“It was great we were able to do that knowing Callum (Connolly) can play inside, we know what Kenny Dougall has done over the last couple of games in terms of giving us that pivot and that security, so those two coming back gives us more options.”

Blackpool take on a Swansea side that were also knocked out on penalties to lower league opposition in midweek, losing to Oxford United after playing out a 2-2 draw during regular time.

Russell Martin’s side have only picked up one point from their opening two league games, which came in a 1-1 draw away to Rotherham United.

But the Welsh outfit slumped to a disappointing 3-0 defeat to Blackburn Rovers in their first home game of the campaign.

Despite the poor start to the season, Martin insists there’s no more pressure than normal on his side at Bloomfield Road this weekend.

"We are three games in aren't we? Not really. I don't know, maybe from outside. Not for us," he said.

"It's been a frustrating start but there have been loads of positive signs as well.

"We created more than Rotherham, we created more than Blackburn, we created much more than Oxford, and we don't win any of them. We have to believe that's going to turn."