Blackpool's players are showing promising signs

The Seasiders maintained their unbeaten pre-season with a 3-3 draw against Premier League side Everton on Saturday.

Critchley’s men, who host Blackburn Rovers tomorrow night in their latest friendly, officially begin their 2020/21 campaign when they take on Stoke City on Saturday in the first round of the Carabao Cup.

While the league season doesn’t begin until September 12, when Blackpool kick off with a long trip down to Plymouth, Critchley says he’s encouraged by where his side is at.

“I think the belief in what we’re trying to do is growing and I think you could tell that after the Barrow game,” Pool’s head coach said.

“It’s still very early days, we have lots of new players. It’s a different team with a new system, trying to play a different way than what some of them might have been used to in the past.

“It takes time, but I have to say the work we’ve done in training and how we’ve played so far, I think there’s evidence of the work we’ve been doing.

“The boys are doing everything to carry it out on the pitch, so I can’t fault their endeavour and how they’ve been receptive to the work we’ve done.”

The Seasiders looked on course to spring a major surprise against Carlo Ancelotti’s men on Saturday after making a quickfire start, scoring three eye-catching goals in the opening 10 minutes.

Just two minutes were on the clock when CJ Hamilton broke the deadlock before Sullay Kaikai and Grant Ward both got in on the act.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulled one back for the Toffees before Gylfi Sigurdsson reduced the deficit further with a calmly-taken penalty.

The Icelandic international had the final say when he curled home a trademark set-piece to save his side’s blushes.

Blackpool were more than a match for their Premier League opponents from start to finish, but Critchley believes it was vital to hang on for the draw for psychological reasons.

“I’m going to contradict what I said the other day but you can’t read too much into pre-season games,” he said.

“They made a lot of changes to their team and I think they’ve only been back a week, while we’ve been back four or five.

“Yes we’re pleased with the performance but we must keep our feet on the ground.

“Stoke in the cup next week will be completely different, as will Plymouth in the league.

“We’re feeling positive but we always revert back to our process of performance and the outcome is the outcome.

“Everyone knows what we want the outcome to be, but it’s how we get the outcome.

“I think, psychologically, I think it was really important for us not to lose the game having been 3-0 up, because I think – even though it’s a pre-season game – the boys would have been really disheartened by that. We didn’t deserve to lose the game.”