Seasiders' boss plays the numbers game

The Seasiders’ manager has overhauled his squad following promotion back to League One.

So far, Bowyer has brought in a dozen new signings in preparation for Saturday’s opening match at Bradford City.

The versatility of some of those players means he may be able to avoid running a larger than necessary squad next season.

“At the moment we haven’t got the the biggest of squads like we didn’t have last year,” Bowyer said.

“What we did have was players who can play in a variety of positions which adds depth to the squad without getting the numbers in.”

One of the summer arrivals is defender Curtis Tilt, who was the first to sign up with the Seasiders in June.

The centre-half made the move from Wrexham after agreeing a two-year deal with the option of a further 12 months.

With Tom Aldred having departed Bloomfield Road for Bury, Tilt is in line to partner Clark Robertson in the centre of defence.

They teamed up for last Saturday’s 2-0 victory at Macclesfield Town where Mark Cullen netted both goals.

“We have to work out who is the best partnership and I thought me and Clark coped well,” Tilt told the club’s website.

“We’ve all been mixing in but hopefully I can get a starting place on Saturday.

“There’s competition all over the pitch, everyone deserves to start on the back of pre-season so it’s down to the gaffer who starts and hopefully we can start with a win.”

After a goalless first half at the Moss Rose, Blackpool’s performance improved in the second half.

Cullen continued his impressive pre-season form with two goals and Tilt believes they are improving going into Saturday’s match with a Bantams side backed to challenge this season.

“Second half we were much better;we got into the flow of moving the ball quicker, getting it wide and supporting ‘Cully’ as much as we could,” he said.

“We made it awkward in patches when we weren’t keeping the ball, but other than that I thought we did it quite well.”