'We'll take a lot from this': Neil Critchley gives his verdict on Blackpool's pre-season friendly defeat to Blackburn Rovers

Neil Critchley believes his Blackpool side will learn a lot of lessons from tonight’s pre-season defeat to Blackburn Rovers.
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Blackpool 1-3 Blackburn Rovers: Championship outfit condemn weakened Seasiders t...

The Seasiders lost for the first time in pre-season as a weakened outfit went down to a 3-1 loss to their Championship opponents at Bloomfield Road.

Ben Brereton netted a first-half double before Matty Virtue responded with a confident strike, his second goal of pre-season.

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But youngster Tyrese Dolan made sure of the win late on for Tony Mowbray’s side to end Blackpool’s unbeaten pre-season record.

Despite the defeat, Critchley was happy with how the evening unfolded.

“It was a really tough game against good opposition. It was a high intensity game from both teams,” he said.

“I thought the attitude and application from both sets of players was top drawer.

Head coach Neil CritchleyHead coach Neil Critchley
Head coach Neil Critchley
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“It was an open game, most of their chances came from our mistakes unfortunately but we’ll take a lot from this game.

“We’ve changed the team around a lot and I think that showed early on in the game, but we also had some good moments ourselves, played some good football and created some chances of our own. Unfortunately the mistakes have killed us.

“But when you’ve got a new team together sometimes you have to weather that 15 minutes where they’re getting used to the relationships on the pitch and they’re getting used to playing with each other.

“If you can get past those 15 minutes the belief can start to grow, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to do that.

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“We actually had a good opportunity to equalise but we didn’t take it, which proved to be a decisive moment in the game.

“It was a really good workout though and some of the boys have completed 90 minutes, which is really good for them.

“Hopefully there’s no injuries but it didn’t look like there were any injuries at the end, which is a real bonus.

“I’ve been really pleased with pre-season in general.”

With Saturday’s Carabao Cup first round tie against Stoke City in mind, Critchley opted to name a second string of fringe players.

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When asked if he was tempted to go stronger, the head coach said: “No, I think players need to feel they’re having an opportunity in pre-season. That’s part and parcel of being a player.

“I didn’t think about that, that was the team I put out and for large parts we gave a good account of ourselves.

“We didn’t quite get our organisation right in the first half, but we changed it at half time.

“It’s all part of their understanding because we’re asking them to play a different way and that will improve as the weeks pass.”