Terry McPhillips can’t wait to see Blackpool’s new signings team up

Nya Kirby was one of Blackpool's January arrivals

The Seasiders enjoyed a good month, making five new additions while also managing to hold onto their key players in the process.

But while McPhillips is pleased with his business, he’s well aware the proof will be in the pudding on the pitch.

“I’m excited but we’ll have to wait to find out how we get on,” the Pool boss said. “We’ll find out a bit more on Saturday, then a bit more on the Saturday after.

“I found out a bit about them on the Tuesday just gone with Elias Sorensen and Nya Kirby making their league debuts.

“We wait and see but you’re hoping Chris Long kicks us on as well. Matty (Virtue) joining us also adds healthy competition. Time will tell if it improves us or not.”

The Seasiders, who make the short trip to Accrington Stanley this afternoon, have surprised many onlookers this season who expect the club to struggle given their off-the-field situation.

But McPhillips says he and the players were always confident they would do well given the quality they possess.

He added: “I think we said at the start of the season that we recruited really well with Gary Bowyer, he brought in some really good players.

“So we were confident as a group of players and staff and nothing has changed.

“One or two who haven’t had as much game time have left and one or two new ones have come in and we think they’ll improve us.

“If the bookmakers are anything to go by, we were one of the favourites to go down at the start of the season, so were Accrington and so were Wycombe. But football is football and from our point of view at the start of the season we were always confident.

“We’ve got the points we’ve got so far but that’s definitely not enough, so we have to win some more matches and get to 52 really to make sure we stay in the division 100 per cent. Maybe 50 does it but I think 52 for sure will do it.

“The quicker you can get to that amount, the better, and always treat football with the respect it deserves or it will come back to bite you on your bum.”

Blackpool are expected to welcome back goalkeeper Mark Howard for today’s trip to Accrington, while Chris Long is also in contention.

Jay Spearing is expected to be out for the next few weeks at least after injuring his knee against Wycombe.