The inspiration Blackpool can take from their Burnley and Norwich City performances against Watford

The Seasiders have performed well against both Burnley and Norwich City this season, holding the Clarets to a thrilling 3-3 draw before being unfortunate to lose 1-0 to the Canaries last week.

With another game against a former top flight on the horizon this afternoon, Appleton believes there’s no reason why his squad can’t cause Watford real problems – only this time pick up a crucial win.

“I hope it’s the case again this weekend that we are more than a match for one of this sides,” Pool’s head coach told The Gazette.

“I don’t know what it is with myself personally and playing sides that are well fancied, but I think what it does do is give us belief because we’ve done it before and we know we’re more than capable of doing it again.”

The Hornets, who have already made one managerial change this season, sit 10th in the table, having won four of their opening 12 games, which is one more than the Seasiders.

Appleton added: “Clearly they’re a side coming down from the Premier League they haven’t lost too many players from last season, or they’ve certainly kept a lot of quality, put it that way.

“It’s difficult to look away from their front three or four. You have to recognise where their strengths are going to lie.

“Clearly when you have the likes of Ismaila Sarr and Joao Pedro in your team, who we expect to come back in, Keinan Davis who obviously did well last year and has a good pedigree, we’re going to have to be right at it.

“Listen, if we’re able to keep a clean sheet against this type of side it would be a fantastic effort.

“But we want to win the game and we’re going to try and win the game. That was our focus on Tuesday, but if we have to take a point like we did against Sunderland because we did everything else to try and win it then so be it.”