Terry McPhillips explains reasoning behind dropping Armand Gnanduillet for Blackpool's defeat at Oxford

That's according to Pool boss Terry McPhillips, who opted to name Gnanduillet on the bench despite the striker scoring in last weekend's win against Charlton Athletic.

Joe Dodoo led the line instead as Pool went down to a 2-0 defeat, with Gnanduillet coming on for the injured Ollie Turton at the start of the second half.

But by then it was too late, as Oxford claimed the three points courtesy of their two first-half efforts - the first which has been given as an Ollie Turton own goal.

“Armand has missed a bit of training this week," McPhillips explained.

"He was fit but we’ve got a lot of games coming up, so that was the choice.

“Armand hasn’t trained until Friday, so on that basis and with the games coming up we wanted to look after him. I thought it was the right thing to do to get him on at half time.

“He’s been fantastic for us, there’s no two ways about it, and the lad has improved no end from the end of last season. He’s a hell of a player and we’ll do well to keep him.”