Blackpool skipper seeks top-half finish

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Pool’s four straight wins have seen Gary Bowyer’s side climb away from the bottom four and up into the top 12.

It’s been quite the turnaround for Blackpool given it was only a month or two ago that the club appeared to be mired in a relegation scrap.

But Ryan, speaking ahead of this weekend’s last home game of the season against Shrewsbury Town, was always confident Blackpool would be safe.

“It would be really big (if Pool finish in the top half),” Ryan said.

“You saw where we were a month ago, where people were wondering if we would go down. But we really kicked on and we want to finish as high as we can now.

“If that makes it the top half, then that’s brilliant and that’s what we’ll be aiming to achieve in the last two games of the season.”

“I’m not sure what to attribute our run to, we’ve just kept going. Even when we had bad spells during the season we always believed in our ability as a squad.

“We’ve kept working hard. At times things just weren’t going for us and we were conceding a few sloppy goals here and there which might have knocked our confidence a little bit.

“The last four or five games, you can see the confidence in the lads. We’re not conceding anywhere near as many goals and that’s down to the hard work we’ve been putting in.

“I think you can see everyone is clicking really well, everyone knows where we’ll be and everyone is covering for each other.

“A lot of the games we’ve won recently and have been down to our intensity more than anything.

“When we start the game on the front foot with our pressing and our hard work, I think our ability comes through naturally after that.

“That’s been the big thing for us, so fair play to the gaffer and the staff because that’s what they’ve drummed into us.

“I think someone said the club hadn’t won four in a row since 2010, so hopefully we can take that one step further and get five.

“Obviously Shrewsbury are a good side who are in the play-offs, which means they might rest a few, but even with a fully-fit squad I’d fancy ourselves to get the three points.”