Neil Critchley gives his verdict on Blackpool's hard-earned friendly win against Port Vale

Goals from Sullay Kaikai and Keshi Anderson saw the Seasiders claim a hard-earned victory against their League Two opponents at Vale Park this afternoon.

It was a tougher test than the one National League North side Southport presented at Haig Avenue last week, which delighted Blackpool's head coach.

“It was a tough workout, it was a step-up from last week’s game but I thought we were ready for it from the training we’ve done,” he told The Gazette.

“There were loads of positive performances and there were plenty of signs of things we’ve been working on. You can see what we’re trying to do.

“However, as a coach you’re always trying to do better and you always want more.

“But I think the more we train together, the more we play, the more those relationships will become stronger and we’ve got to remember these players haven’t played football for a long time.

“That’s only our second game, so building that rhythm will be really important over the next few weeks.”

Ten of Blackpool’s starting XI played the first 60 minutes, with trialist goalkeeper Alex Fojticek replacing Chris Maxwell at the interval.

Critchley was pleased to see some of his players get more game time under their belts and admits he has been impressed by his players’ fitness levels.

“We’ve obviously got a game against Barrow on Tuesday, so we’ll probably look at reversing roles,” he said.

“I think the players are in really good condition physically and that’s testament to the work they’ve done in the off-period.

“I wouldn’t have any doubts of playing them for 90 minutes at the moment.”

Kaikai and Anderson were among the goals for the second week running, Anderson scoring his second goal in tangerine since joining from Swindon Town earlier this summer.

When asked about his side's goalscorers, Critchley stressed the need to share goals around the team during the upcoming season.

He added: “If you want to get promoted you’ve got to get a lot of goals, so we’ve tried to bring in players - to add to the players we’ve already got - that we think are going to provide that for us.

“We want goals from different areas of the pitch and we’ve shown in both games we’ve got the capabilities of scoring goals.

“We probably could and should have scored one or two more today.”