Nick Anderton is glad to be back with Blackpool

Nick Anderton has spoken of his delight at returning to the fold at Blackpool after gaining some crucial game time out on loan.
Nick Anderton returned for the Seasiders last weekendNick Anderton returned for the Seasiders last weekend
Nick Anderton returned for the Seasiders last weekend

The defender made his first appearance for Blackpool since August last weekend in the 1-0 win at Portsmouth.

It came after the 22-year-old had returned from his loan spell at Accrington Stanley, where he made 25 appearances.

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That spell of regular football was key for Anderton, who admitted the previous season at Bloomfield Road didn’t go exactly as he had planned with the left-back making just 11 appearances.

“The first half of the season, it was important I played after last season where I didn’t really play enough,” Anderton said.

“The management team said to me at the beginning of the season that it was important to get a run of games, especially in the first half of the season.

“Now I’m back, they know I’ve experienced first-team football and they’ve now told me it’s up to me because I’ll get a chance. It’s up to me to take it.

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“I was in touch with Terry (McPhillips, Blackpool manager) while I was playing at Accrington and he was monitoring how I was doing.

“Coming back in, the group had done well to reach the third round of the FA Cup and I came back for that game against Arsenal on the bench. It’s nice to be back.”

Anderton made the move to Blackpool for an undisclosed fee in June 2017 from National League side Barrow.

Having only experienced non-league football prior to his move to the Fylde coast, Anderton admits it’s been tough acclimatising to the step up in quality.

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“I played a lot of games in the Conference at a young age,” he added.

“I just needed to play in League One for a run of games to show I can do that as well.

“It’s totally different, the standard is different as it’s two leagues higher.

“You’re playing against quality opposition every week and if you make a mistake you’re more than likely to get punished.

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“In the lower leagues you get away with it sometimes but it’s a good experience and it’s what I want to do.

“Different managers play in different ways. At Barrow we used to hit it long to the big man, which is what a lot of sides do in the Conference, but then I came here and Gary Bowyer was more of a ‘get-the-ball-down-and-play’ kind of manager.

“It took me a while to get used to that but I feel this season has been massive for me so far.

“I had a stop-start season last year but this season I wanted to play as many games as I could.

“I think I started over 20 games at Accrington which was massive for me.

“I just want to play as many games as I can this season and hopefully help the team to get as high up the table as possible.”