Brett Ormerod column: Blackpool's timely midweek victory

Coming off the back of the last-minute defeat at Bolton Wanderers the game before, they managed to bounce back and it’s hopefully stopped the rot.

It looked like they had lost their way a bit, given they went eight without a league win, but they can hopefully kick on now and continue to move up that table.

From listening to Steve Bruce, it just seems like there’s perhaps been a couple of lapses in concentration which have cost them – but injuries haven’t helped them either.

Someone like Oliver Norburn is a massive player for Blackpool in my opinion. If he combines with Lee Evans – who has done fantastically this season – then that’s a brilliant central two for them to have in midfield.

He’s been out injured though but now he’s back – and hopefully others will soon follow – it will mean everyone is pushing for a place and things will be moving in the right direction.

That competition for places keeps everyone on their toes. If Blackpool have a good starting 11, as they showed when Steve Bruce first came in, they can put together a run of victories.

CJ Hamilton is a miss though. When he is in full flow, he’s very hard to stop and he’s a big part of Steve Bruce’s approach with his pace down the wing and crossing ability.

If they can get everyone fit and firing, they have shown they can go to places like Charlton and Huddersfield and win, while it will also help create a fear factor for teams coming to Bloomfield Road.

One thing to bear in mind is that it’s still relatively early days in the league season, Blackpool have only played 17 games.

There are 29 games left and, with three points up for grabs every game, that’s a hell of a lot of football still to be played – I don’t think anyone’s been promoted or relegated in November.

What I will say is that League One is getting harder as a division. You look at clubs like Bolton, Birmingham City, Wrexham and Stockport County who are well backed and, with only three promotion places, someone’s going to be disappointed at the end of the season.

Speaking of Birmingham, it’s the magic of the FA Cup this weekend when they play Blackpool.

They have been playing really well, they have got a very experienced squad and they have spent a lot of money – most notably around £15m when they bought Jay Stansfield.

That just shows how much football has changed. When I played in the Premier League, it was inconceivable for a lot of teams to pay that for a player – let alone a team in League One – but good luck to him.

It starts a busy run for Blackpool with eight games in the month, but football is a squad game now and it’s down to the managers to decide whether they want to rest and rotate players or not.

Every manager’s priority is the league but, from experience, it’s also nice to have an FA Cup run at the same time.