Michael Appleton won't change from brave approach as Blackpool prepare for Burnley derby

The Seasiders make the short trip across the county tomorrow to face Lancashire rivals Burnley, looking to make it back-to-back wins after Tuesday night’s triumph against QPR.

Appleton’s side claimed a 1-0 victory at Loftus Road, the club’s first win there since 1972, thanks to Josh Bowler’s strike in first-half stoppage time.

While Blackpool had to dig in during a tense second-half, they also played some impressive football during the first 45, playing out from the back with confidence and working their way through the thirds with some slick one and two-touch football.

A hallmark of Appleton’s previous sides at Oxford United and Lincoln City, Pool’s head coach says the Seasiders won’t be altering their approach any time soon.

“It’s all I know, it’s what I’ve been brought up doing, it’s what I’ve done with all of my teams I’ve coached,” he said.

“What it does is produce players, it helps develop players and I think it’s the right way to go for us because we’re growing as a football club and it’s only our second season in the Championship for a period of time.

“If they can do it on a regular basis and come to places like QPR and pick the points up, we’re certainly on the right path.”

As important as Tuesday night’s win against QPR was, the scoreline could have been even more comfortable for the Seasiders had they taken their late chances to double their lead.

Both Shayne Lavery and Theo Corbeanu had opportunities to put the game to bed in stoppage-time but failed to find the back of the net.

“That’s been the story to be fair of pretty much every game this season,” Appleton said.

“The first-half at Stoke is the only 45 minutes where I’ve been really disappointed, although we turned it around a little bit in the second-half.

“In all the other games we’ve certainly played our part and created opportunities. Saturday was no different, as was last week when we went out to Barrow in the cup because of the chances we created.

“We look dangerous, we look like we can score goals but we’re obviously not hitting the net on a regular basis at the minute.

“But the most pleasing thing more than anything, taking the Stoke game away we’ve had three out of five clean sheets in the games we’ve played and we should have four out of five.

“All I’m doing is trying to tweak the style of play and be a bit more progressive by being braver on the ball, but not going away from what they’ve been so good at over the last few seasons.”

Charlie Patino and Lewis Fiorini are injury doubts for tomorrow’s trip to Turf Moor after picking up knocks at Loftus Road.

Patino suffered swelling on his ankle after falling awkwardly on his foot, while Fiorini appears to have injured his hamstring.

Gary Madine could come back into contention, but Luke Garbutt, Kevin Stewart, Keshi Anderson and Jake Beesley all remain sidelined.