Young Blackpool players filling boss Neil Critchley with hope for future

Neil Critchley believes the young Blackpool players who took the field for Tuesday's Carabao Cup defeat against Sunderland can fill the club with optimism for the future.
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FANS' PICTURE GALLERY: Blackpool v Sunderland.

While much attention was focused on defender Daniel Gretarsson playing his first game in more than four months after injury, Pool's head coach was as keen to discuss others who came into a side much changed from Saturday's draw at Bournemouth.

There was no shortage of positives for Critchley after the 3-2 defeat by a Black Cats side who will visit Wigan Athletic in the third round.

Sonny Carey gave an "excellent" performance for boss Neil CritchleySonny Carey gave an "excellent" performance for boss Neil Critchley
Sonny Carey gave an "excellent" performance for boss Neil Critchley
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"I agree that Daniel playing 90 minutes was brilliant," said Critchley, "but we made a lot of changes (nine) and there were some excellent performances.

"We had some young players on the pitch and I was really encouraged by what I saw. I thought the young players really stood up and thrived in the atmosphere.

"You want to see them go and express themselves and show what they are about because you never know what you are going to get from young players until they are given an opportunity.

"Sometimes they can shrink in that environment and go under a bit, but some puff their chests out and say, 'I'll have a bit of that'.

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"Some of the younger players played really well. It's what we want this club to be about – hungry players who excite the supporters and want to improve."

Two he singled out were forward Sonny Carey and defender Oliver Casey.

"I thought Sonny was excellent all night," said the Pool boss. "He covers a lot of ground, has good ability on the ball and makes good decisions which will improve.

"We played him closer to Shayne (Lavery) but then dropped him down a bit to play closer to Reece (James) and he showed real maturity."

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Critchley experimented with Casey at right-back and added: "He might have to be an option there in case of an emergency but I thought he was excellent.

"I take responsibility if he makes a positional mistake because it's a situation that's not familiar to him.

"He stuck to his task unbelievably well and showed real commitment, and he is a great person to work with. I have no probems with the way he played tonight."

The only disappointment for Critchley on Tuesday was the result, a third successive home defeat since beating Middlesbrough in the opening round at Bloomfield Road.

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"Unfortunately we are not giving he supporters a win to celebrate and go home with," he said. "We want to have that feeling of winning at home and we haven't got that but I don't think we deserved to lose.

"We are not getting that bit of luck or rub of the green in a lot of games. I could point to the first game (at Bristol City), where their lad is offside for the goal.

"We could have had a penalty for handball against Cardiff and now Sunderland have scored from a big deflection.

"Things are just not going our way and that can happen in football, but if we continue performing as we are and creating as many chances we will win games."

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