Terry McPhillips stresses importance of tying Blackpool's key players down to new deals

The contracts of Nathan Delfouneso, Donervon Daniels, Jimmy Ryan, Chris Long and Myles Boney all expire at the end of the season.

McPhillips has held talks with the club's board over what individuals he would like to keep, but he says there's still more work to be done.

“There’s been some negotiation but where we’re up to, there’s nothing concrete," the Pool boss said.

"We’ll meet again with the board and try and get closer to what we want to do.

“It’s not just Nathan, we’ve got some good other players that are out of contract - so the sooner we can do that, the better for everyone.

“It’s not rocket science, you want to try and keep your better players. I think in the past we haven’t done that although it wasn’t for the want of trying.

“We lost people like Clark Robertson, Kyle Vassell and Colin Daniel all for nothing which was a real shame, because you’re trying to build.”

One of those out-of-contract players, Delfouneso, is in line to make his 200th appearance for the Seasiders at Luton Town this weekend.

The forward, who is in his fourth spell with the club, will be looking for a repeat of his last appearance at Kenilworth Road, where he scored in Pool's dramatic League Two play-off semi-final second leg win.

“It’s brilliant for Nathan to be knocking on the door for that," McPhillips added.

“If he does get selected hopefully he can mark it with a goal.

“Sometimes you have your teams where you get your goals, so hopefully that’s the case on Saturday.”