Steven Pressley on how his Carlisle side will approach tonight's EFL Trophy game against Blackpool

Carlisle boss Steven Pressley confirmed after his side's 4-2 weekend defeat to Crewe Alexandra that he'll be making several changes.

The former Fleetwood Town boss named an experimental line-up for their opening EFL Trophy group game, which also ended in a 4-2 defeat.

"We'll make a lot of changes," Pressley confirmed.

"I think it's important we get some game time into some of the other players but it's a game we want to win.

"We will be doing everything we can to do so.

"I want to give our players on the periphery a real opportunity and that's what we'll do."

Carlisle have struggled at home this season, winning just two of their seven league games at Brunton Park.

That run only worsened at the weekend, when the Cumbrians failed to secure a result despite fighting back from two goals down to level matters in the second half.

But Crewe, who top the League Two table, fired in another two goals to take the three points.

"At home we want to start positively and aggressively but we probably didn't do that on Saturday," Pressley added.

"But there's obviously a nervousness about the place, that's normal, but it's something we need to handle and accept.

"We're just disappointed that we worked so hard to get back into the game that we didn't go on to win it."

Blackpool will qualify for the knockout stage of the competition with a victory at Brunton Park tonight, having kicked off their campaign with a 5-1 thrashing of Morecambe.