What is Simon Grayson's ambition for Blackpool this season?

The Seasiders begin the campaign this afternoon by welcoming Bristol Rovers to Bloomfield Road.

It promises to be the start of a memorable campaign for Grayson and his men under the stewardship of new owner Simon Sadler.

While the Blackpool boss is expecting to see an improvement from last term, he doesn't want to put too much pressure on themselves.

When asked for Pool's aim this coming season, Grayson said: “To improve on last year.

“You don’t want to set ambitions too high, but you don’t want to set them too low either. So all I’ll say is that we want to improve on last year.

“If you make any ambition and don’t follow it up then it’s a failure.

“But each year I think a football club has to improve on where it was the previous season.

“I think we’ve got a good balance of experience and young players, we’ve got a group who will put their bodies on the line and not want to concede, because that was a strength last season.

“We also want the players at the top end of the pitch to express themselves and to play with no fear. When they come to putting the ball in the back of the net we want them to do it with the quality we want to bring to the club.

“All them aspects can play a massive part but also the positiveness of the supporters is key too.

“We’re going to go through some bad results, everybody does that. But it’s how the players respond to that.

“We’re all in this together and hopefully come the end of the season we’re in a positive frame of mind having achieved something.”

With all the positivity off the field, Grayson says both the fans and players must harness that momentum to their advantage.

"It’s a long season and there’s so many games, so many cup competitions that we are going to have a lull at some time," the Pool boss added.

“We don’t want to do that, we are trying to be very positive in our approach, but there are going to be occasions where they will need the supporters to back them and stay positive.

“That can be crucial throughout this long, hard campaign. But let’s hope we are having many great days and nights at this club.

“It’s no coincidence with the lack of support, and I understand why supporters have done that, that this place can be a difficult place to play.

“We’ve got to use this new wave of optimism to our benefit, that we get the players on the front foot and the supporters on the edge of their seats and make it really difficult - no matter who we’re playing.

“You saw last week against Blackburn we made it difficult for them and there were some good signs and it was a good atmosphere even though it was only a pre-season friendly.

“Well I’m pretty sure it will be quite electric come Saturday.”