Can Blackpool use tonight's opponents Coventry City as a blueprint for Championship survival?

Mark Robins’ men enjoyed an impressive first season back in the Championship last term, finishing in 16th and 12 points clear of the drop zone.

The Sky Blues will have one of the lower budgets in the division this season. Nevertheless, this time last year, Coventry forked out £1.35m for Gustavo Hamer, a defensive midfielder from Dutch side PEC Zwolle.

In the last year alone, they have also dished out fees for Ben Sheaf, Viktor Gyökeres, Marcel Hibner, Jay McGrath, Tyler Walker, Josh Reid and Favio Tavares.

During this window, Ian Maatsen and Jake Clarke-Salter have both arrived on loan from Chelsea.

Pool boss Critchley said: “Not to go on about finances, but they have spent a little bit of money on players. They’ve recruited but they’ve done it sensibly, within their means.

“They’ve obviously had issues off the pitch with their ground but now they’re back playing at the Ricoh.

“Mark has done a great job there, he really has. I suppose, if you’re looking at teams we can compete with or put yourself on a par with, Coventry would be somewhere near that.

“Again, if you look at some of the money they’ve spent on certain players, it’s still a big club.

“I went to the Coventry v Nottingham Forest game last week and there were nearly 21,000 there, so we’re competing against big clubs with big resources.

“That’s the challenge and we’re looking forward to it. We can hold our own this season, definitely.”

The Seasiders can expect a completely different test tonight to that faced against Mick McCarthy’s Cardiff City team at the weekend.

Critchley’s side struggled to deal with the Bluebirds’ aerial bombardment during their 2-0 defeat.

“They’re a different team to Cardiff,” Critchley said of Coventry. “They have been building for the last few years.

“They got promotion out of League One and, last season, stayed in the division. They’ll now be looking to progress further this season.

“They’ve got a clear way of playing. They have some good ability, with some good players with experience.

“I’ve watched them a few times and they’re good at what they do. They’re well coached and they’ve got some good players there.

“Every game in this division will be tough, but I’ve seen enough in us over the last two games to know we’ll be competitive.

“You’d expect Cardiff to be up there come the end of the season and, watching the game back, we were competitive against a good team.

“Could we have done better? Yes. Do we need to do better? Of course we do but I’ve got a belief we will do that.”

Kevin Stewart is close to returning from his ankle injury but tonight’s Bloomfield Road encounter is likely to be too soon for the midfielder.

Daniel Gretarsson (shoulder) and Gary Madine (groin) are also making good progress but are being eased back into training before being risked in a game.

There are no fresh injury concerns from the weekend, with Marvin Ekpiteta, Josh Bowler and Shayne Lavery all pushing to start after being on the bench against Cardiff.

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