Scuffle at Southport, Apter's rise and Lubala's goals: How Blackpool's pre-season unfolded

All three of their wins came against lower league opposition without a goal being conceded.

Their defeats, meanwhile, came during their higher profile games against Leeds United, Rangers and Everton.

As a result, it’s tricky to take too much away from their six summer outings. They beat who they were supposed to beat and lost against much bigger sides with budgets that dwarf Blackpool’s.

Besides, we all know results in pre-season matter for very little and the focus instead is on building up fitness and working on tactics, systems and integrating new players.

This has been especially evident this summer where the Seasiders are adopting a new 4-3-3 formation under Michael Appleton and looking to play more of a possession-based style compared to the more structured, out-of-possession focused approach of Neil Critchley.

It’s always worth taking friendlies with a pinch of salt anyway, because the side that starts a game very rarely, if ever, finishes it and the horde of changes throughout the 90 minutes provides a constant interruption to the flow of the game.

But there were still plenty of things for us to take away from Blackpool’s six friendlies, which got underway with the now traditional trip to Southport, which drew more attention for what happened off the pitch rather than on it.

Wingers CJ Hamilton and Beryly Lubala scored the goals in a routine 2-0 win, but the main drama came off the pitch when the game was temporarily halted by the referee following a scuffle between rival fans.

It was something or nothing and the game eventually resumed without any further hiccups, but it was nonetheless a surprise to witness a flare-up of hostility in a so-called friendly.

After that, Appleton’s men produced their most disappointing performance of the summer in a 4-0 defeat to top flight side Leeds United.

While there was an obvious gulf in quality, the Seasiders did themselves no favours and conceded some really soft goals during a horror first-half.

The players got the chance to put that game to the back of their minds when they set off for a week-long training camp in Edinburgh before returning to the Fylde coast for their first home outing of the summer.

Pool were much improved against Rangers, pushing Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side all the way before being edged out 2-1, their goal coming via Lubala late on.

A team largely based of fringe players claimed a narrow 1-0 victory against Salford thanks to Jerry Yates’ tap-in, before a stronger side were beaten 4-2 by Frank Lampard’s Everton in an entertaining encounter at Bloomfield Road.

One more friendly was hastily arranged to hand some minutes to players in need of them this week on Tuesday night as Yates and Lubala scored again - the latter for the third time in pre-season - on Blackpool’s way to a comfortable 2-0 win against AFC Fylde.

The standout performer against Fylde was the same player who has starred all summer: 19-year-old Rob Apter - and that’s despite being played out of position for the majority of his outings.

Lubala has put himself back in the frame with his goals while Sonny Carey has also caught the eye.