Neil Critchley delivers his verdict on Blackpool's pre-season friendly draw against Morecambe

The Seasiders were held to a 1-1 draw in their latest friendly encounter, having recovered from going a goal down in the first-half.

Critchley’s men were in control for large parts of the game, but lacked a cutting edge in the final third and were often susceptible to being hit on the break.

Nevertheless, Pool did create chances and finally managed to level the scores in the second-half, CJ Hamilton the man to tap home after Keshi Anderson’s powerful effort had rattled the crossbar.

Critchley, whose side take on Premier League champions Man City on Tuesday before their league opener at Bristol City, was pleased with today’s challenge.

“It was a really good game. There were chances at either end.,” he said.

“Stephen (Robinson) has come in and implemented a way of playing, you can quite clearly see that. They’re well coached with what they’re trying to do.

“They put men behind the ball and they made it difficult for us, so we found it difficult to play through them. They waited for mistakes in the middle of the pitch and then looked to counter-attack.

“We were a little bit slow to find the solutions and slow with our play, so we possibly played into their hands a little bit.

“You know they’re waiting for the counter-attack and we didn’t stop that one counter-attack well enough which led to the goal.

“Saying that, we gradually got better and created some good opportunities ourselves and in the second-half we were well on top until the last 10 minutes.

“What’s been good for us is that we’ve had different tests in pre-season, different types of games and this was another one today.”

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