Blackpool's players are challenged to be more clinical in front of goal

The Seasiders paid for poor finishing on Tuesday, when they slumped to a 3-0 home defeat against Huddersfield Town.

Critchley’s players have scored five times in seven league games this season, with just one of those coming at Bloomfield Road.

Pool have been creating chances though, which gives Critchley confidence that goals will come.

“I don’t think there’s been a game where we haven’t looked like scoring goals,” Pool’s head coach told The Gazette.

“That would be a worry, so – as a coach – if we didn’t look like scoring then it would be a trend that would be worrying me, so we’d have to work on that in training to try and put it right.

“In every game we’ve played, we’ve looked like scoring. Even against Huddersfield, we created some good opportunities.

“Saying that, there weren’t many chances at either end. Neither goalkeeper had a great deal to do really.

“Against Fulham we’ve created chances, Bournemouth away, even Millwall – when we were down to 10 men – we still created some good chances.

“That’s not worrying me, so you could just argue we need to be a bit more clinical in front of goal which is something we need to work upon.”

The Seasiders head to Middlesbrough today, looking to get back to winning ways after their midweek setback.

While four of Blackpool’s five league goals have come on the road, Critchley believes that’s just a coincidence.

“We don’t prepare any differently home or away, we just have a plan for every game,” he said.

“We don’t try and change our way of playing depending if we’re playing home or away.

“We don’t have a way of setting up our team if we’re playing away and when we’re at home we’ve got to change and play another way; we just try to be us every time we take to the pitch.

“We know Middlesbrough will be a tough game, as they all are.

“However, if we can keep performing the way we have been and tighten up on one or two things, then I’m confident that results will follow.”

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