Bowyer: Defeat won't change transfer plans

The Seasiders went down 1-0 to Mansfield in their first game of 2017, when Matt Green’s deflected first-half effort was enough for the Stags to complete a League Two double over Bowyer’s side.

But when asked if the defeat would spark him into action during this month’s window, the manager was in a defiant mood and insisted no-one would have questioned the strength of his squad had they won on Monday.

Bowyer said: “You can’t get carried away if you win because people would be saying the squad is fine.

“But now we lose and all of a sudden my squad is not very good.

“It’s the fickle nature of football but, as I’ve said all along, if a good player becomes available who is better than what we’ve already got, then we’ll be interested.”

Bowyer decided to make four changes, with Michael Cain, Danny Pugh, Danny Philliskirk and Armand Gnanduillet all coming into the side, but the Pool boss refused to use the changes as an excuse for his side’s weak performance.

He said: “I think if you look up and down the country, I don’t think there will be one team that played the same side on New Year’s Eve and on Monday. It was nothing more than that.”

When asked to comment on the performance of Gnanduillet, who was given a start for the first time in over two months, Bowyer refused to hide his frustration.

He added: “You give some the opportunity and some take it, while others need to do better.

“You can only give people an opportunity and it’s up to them whether they take it or confirm what you already know.”

But Bowyer did leap to the defence of Danny Philliskirk, despite taking the former Oldham man off just 10 minutes into the second half.

He said: “He’s been unlucky this season because he started in the number 10 position but got injured after 12 minutes.

“Obviously since then we brought some strikers in and they took their opportunities.

“But Danny’s got great flexibility and he can play out wide, and we will continue to use him if we feel that’s the right thing to do.”