Brett Ormerod column: Blackpool's injury problems give others a chance to shine

Blackburn were in good form and they’ve got a striker in Ben Brereton-Diaz who is one of the most in-form players in the Championship.

That was always going to be a tough game for the Seasiders, but it’s one they’ve managed to win which says a lot about them.

Unfortunately, the result came at a cost as they lost three big players to injury in Chris Maxwell, Richard Keogh and Shayne Lavery.

To lose your centre-half, your goalkeeper and your main striker is a big blow.

One way of looking at it is that it gives other players the opportunity to step up and try and claim a first-team place.

Nevertheless, they’re three big players for Blackpool so they will be sorely missed.

Fortunately Blackpool have a very strong squad this season.

When you look at the depth, they’ve got quality right through the squad.

They’ve got a lot of people pushing for 11 spots, which keeps that competition going, so I’m confident they can come through it.

They lost a lot of players last season but they managed to adapt to it and got on with it.

In terms of the striker’s role, they’ve got a ready-made replacement for Lavery in Jerry Yates, who got his first goal from open play against Blackburn.

Hopefully he will kick on now and he will grasp this opportunity, because I’m sure he’s been champing at the bit to get game time.

When you’ve had such a good season and finished as top goalscorer, but the next campaign hasn’t started as well as you’d like and someone else has come in and hit the ground running, it can be hard at times.

He’s kept patient, got his opportunity and scored, so hopefully that will set him on a similar run to last year.

Nottingham Forest are next up and that won’t be easy because they’ve had a resurgence under the new manager, Steve Cooper.

They’ve always had top quality players there, I just think they were lacking a bit of confidence under Chris Hughton.

They’ve got a manager who likes to play football and he’s done things with Swansea. He’s coached some of England’s youth teams, too, so he really knows his stuff.

He’s got a good pedigree and he seems to have got Forest flying and got that spark back, so it will be a really difficult game.

Pool are on the road again after that in midweek when they take on Reading, but then it’s the big one after that which I can’t wait for. The derby is finally back.

A lot of the fans work together, there’s fans on both sides, so I’m buzzing it’s back because derbies are the best thing about football. You can’t replicate the atmosphere.

It doesn’t matter where you are in the league, who’s doing well and who isn’t, when you come to that game – for some reason – all form goes out of the window.

I’ve got some good memories of the derby games. I’ve won a few but, unfortunately, I’ve lost a few as well.

I remember scoring the winner in the 89th minute in one game, but the season after, I broke my leg and missed the next one.

It’s a sell out, which is great. Preston have established themselves again after a slow start and Blackpool have got themselves going. It will be a good game.

It was very sad to hear the news about Trevor Hemmings.

He was a man who put countless amounts of money into Preston and saved them many years ago when they were in financial trouble.

I was lucky enough to meet Trevor a few times when I was at Preston and I had some good conversations with him.

He loved his football, he loved his horse racing and he was just a very nice bloke.

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