New Blackpool boss Mick McCarthy outlines his approach for FA Cup tie against Southampton

The 63-year-old takes charge of his first game on Saturday when the Seasiders face Premier League strugglers Southampton.

Blackpool have already seen off one top flight side this season in the cup in the form of Nottingham Forest and McCarthy says his side will be out to do the same to Nathan Jones’ men.

“We’re going to try and win it, absolutely. Why not? You can’t do anything else. We’ll try and win the game and try and get another cup tie,” he said.

“Sometimes you think it might impede what you’re trying to do but we got to the semi-final of the cup with Sunderland, I don’t think it harmed us because we got to the play-offs as well.

“It’s momentum. If you win a game, you might feel knackered but you’ll feel less knackered than if you’ve lost a game.

“You might go on and win another game and you can build on it, so that’s what we’ll try and do to get some momentum with some results.”

McCarthy was initially due to be in the dugout for the first time last week, but Blackpool’s crunch league clash against Huddersfield fell foul to the weather.

Richard O’Donnell, who stayed with the club after Michael Appleton’s departure, took training and had prepared the team for the game before the postponement.

“They've just signed three players, they’ve probably got their tails up a little bit. I had no input into the game except for turning up on Friday morning,” McCarthy said.

“It was a little bit awkward, because it is. Richard is there and I said ‘Ritchie, you’ve got to take this, I can’t come in here and say we’re going to do man for man marking instead of zonal and we’re going to do these free-kicks’.

“The players would have looked at me like I was a complete dope, but I would have been on the bench and it would have been my game. As much as I was disappointed, I wasn’t that bothered either. I thought it was maybe not a bad thing.

“We’ve had a week to prepare for Southampton and then we’ve got another week to prepare for Middlesbrough.”