'We're mindful of that': Blackpool boss Michael Appleton delivers verdict on his former club West Brom

The Seasiders head to the Hawthorns looking to claim a third straight win against a Baggies outfit that surprisingly prop up the second tier table.

West Brom sit bottom on just 14 points having won just one of their last 13 games and losing their last three on the bounce.

Having spent over a decade in the West Midlands both as a player and coach Appleton has a lot of time for Blackpool’s next opponents – but he also knows his players have got a job to do.

“The players are in a good place given the back-to-back wins,” Appleton said.

“It was two very good performances but two very different performances. One at home and one away. But we’re now looking forward to another big challenge.

“They’re clearly in a very false position but ultimately results do tell a story as well, so we’re obviously mindful of that.

“They’ve obviously got quality players and I do believe that at some point they will start winning games and start climbing the table, I just hope that’s after Tuesday night.”

Appleton added: “I spent probably more than 10 years of my life there both as a player and a coach, so clearly I’ve got a lot of good memories.

“There’s a lot of people still at the football club who were there when I first joined god knows when it was.

“It’s a good football club, really well backed and I’m looking forward to going up against them tomorrow and hopefully beating them.”

West Brom were expected to challenge at the other end of the table before a ball was kicked, but Steve Bruce oversaw a horrid start to the campaign which saw him lose his job.

Now in the hotseat is former Huddersfield Town boss Carlos Corberan, who was sacked himself earlier in the season by Greek outfit Olympiakos.

On tonight’s challenge, Appleton said: “There are different phases, a wounded animal and all these phrases, but ironically – believe it or not – even though they find themselves bottom they’re almost able to play with a bit of freedom, as daft as that sounds.

“There’s nowhere else for them to go in terms of getting worse so it’s clearly only going to get better at some point.

“They’re in a place where they can just attack and go for it, so we’ve got to be mindful of that. I’m sure the previous teams they’ve played were mindful of it as well so we’ve got to make sure in the early part of the game we make them as nervous as we can and try and quieten the crowd.

“We’ll be no different to anyone that goes there. Even if they were sitting top of the league, that would still be our mindset in the early part of the game, to make sure the fans don’t play a part.

“We’ve been to some fantastic stadiums this year where, if the fans haven’t had an influence on us they’ve had an influence on the people in the middle, the referees.

“We’ve got to try and make sure we don’t allow them to do that.”