Neil Critchley: Blackpool out to spoil proud Portsmouth record

Kenny Jackett’s team make the long trip to Bloomfield Road for the 7pm kick-off looking to avoid defeat on their travels for the seventh game running.

Also League One’s top scorers with 26 goals from 14 games, Pompey sit fifth in the table.

Head coach Critchley said: “They’re very well organised but off the back of that they have a lot of quality at the top end of the pitch.

“They have a real clear way of playing. Kenny Jackett is an experienced manager and they have experienced players in the team.

“They do the basics very, very well and they make it very difficult for you.

“They’ve not lost away in the league this season, so that tells you something about their mentality and resilience.

“We know we’ll have to play well to beat them but that record is there to be broken at some point.”

Blackpool are in fine form themselves, having won six of their last seven games in all competitions.

The only blip, the 3-2 defeat at Doncaster Rovers a week ago, probably ought to have yielded three points as well, with the Seasiders throwing away a two-goal half-time lead.

Critchley added: “There is a good spirit in the dressing room at the moment. That’s been evident all season, even in the tougher period at the beginning of the season. It’s a great group of people to work with. We’ll be ready for Tuesday night.

"We deservedly had a good victory against Harrogate (in the FA Cup) at the weekend, although it should have been a seventh straight win.

“We had a small blip at Doncaster for only a short period of time within that game but we’re still in good form.

“I’m confident we can cause Portsmouth problems and give a good account of ourselves.”

Reflecting on that cruel defeat at the Keepmoat in their last league outing, Critchley said: “We’ve got to find the right way of winning games and at Doncaster we didn’t quite do that, so that was a reminder to the players.

“I’m not saying they needed a reminder because we still should have got something on the night, but it might not have been a bad thing – though only if we learn from it.

“It’s about finding the right formula and that will to win all the time, even in games when you’re not quite at your best. You’ve still got to find a way of picking up points.

“Even to come away from Doncaster with a point would have been a better feeling than what we had after the game.

“There have been periods within games when we could have done better and found better solutions which would have got us more points than we have so far.”

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