This Week's Opposition: Blackpool

The Blues got back to winning ways last weekend with a nervy 2-1 victory over Oxford United at Fratton Park to strengthen their position at the top of the league. Next up, a trip to Lancashire to take on The Tangerines…

Just 10 games remain for the Blues this season as the race for automatic promotion to the Championship begins to heat up.

This weekend, we go from one seaside to another… Pompey travel to Blackpool for matchday number 37 in League One.

MANAGER

The Tangerines are managed by former Liverpool Academy and Queens Park Rangers head coach Neil Critchley.

Critchley has managed Blackpool once before prior to this current stint. Appointed in March 2020, he spent just over 2 years with the club before accepting the role of assistant head coach to Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa in 2022.

During his 1st full season in charge of Blackpool, Critchley guided the side to a 3rd place finish in League One and promotion to the Championship via the Play-Offs.

The 45-year-old has collected 24 wins from 49 games since taking back over in May of last year, accruing a win percentage of 48.98%.

On 2 occasions, the now-Blackpool gaffer has even led Premier League Liverpool from the dugout, though not 1 of those games were a top flight fixture.

Fixture congestion in December 2019 saw Liverpool draw Aston Villa away in the Carabao Cup with the game taking place 1 day before their Club World Cup clash with Mexican outfit Monterrey. Jurgen Klopp went to the Club World Cup match whilst Critchley led a team of youngsters to a 5-0 defeat at Villa Park.

The other game was an FA Cup 4th Round Replay victory over Shrewsbury Town at Anfield, where again a youthful side was fielded while the 1st team squad were scheduled to be on a mid-season break.

ONE TO WATCH

Our one to watch this weekend is 21-year-old Karamoko Dembele.

Dembele plays on the wing and has so far this season played over 1,800 league minutes, registering 6 goals and 11 assists - Only Peterborough’s Nathaniel Mendez-Laing has registered more set-ups with 14.

He has also managed a goal and an assist from 4 FA Cup appearances this season too, though failed to offer any goal contributions across 4 outings in the EFL Trophy.

The former Celtic starlet wears the number 11 shirt for Blackpool, where he is on loan at from French top-flight outfit Brest.

TOP SCORER

Blackpool’s top goalscorer in the league at this stage of the season is 34-year-old Jordan Rhodes.

The striker is currently on loan at Bloomfield Road from Championship strugglers Huddersfield Town and has so far bagged 15 goals in the league this campaign, as well as 3 assists.

Rhodes returned to action as a second-half substitute in last Saturday’s trip to Shrewsbury after a spell of 8 games of not being included in the Blackpool squad.

The Oldham-born former Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday forward wears the number 16 shirt for The Tangerines and in his first 8 league games for the club, he managed to claim 7 goals.

Recently however, Rhodes has struggled to find the back of the net and has also had game time limited - He has not scored since a 3-1 home win over Bristol Rovers on the 23rd of December.

CURRENT FORM

The Seasiders are just outside of the Play-Off positions in 8th place with 56 points, 4 points behind Stevenage in 6th with 10 games of their own remaining.

Neil Critchley’s side have picked up a bit of form lately, winning 3 of their last 4 league matches, including a 4-1 thrashing of automatic promotion hopefuls Bolton Wanderers at Bloomfield Road on the 24th of February.

Among those recent league fixtures, Blackpool were dumped out of the EFL Trophy at the Semi-Final stage by Peterborough United, who were victorious by 3 goals to nil on the Lancashire Coast to set up a meeting with Wycombe Wanderers in the showpiece Final at Wembley in April.

If you cast your minds back to November, the Blues were inflicted their first league defeat of the season by this weekend’s opponents, who thumped Pompey 4-0 at Fratton Park thanks to goals from Owen Dale, Jake Beesley, CJ Hamilton and Albie Morgan.

Can the Blues exact some revenge on The Tangerines and register a 10th straight game without defeat to move one step closer to promotion?

All of the unmissable action of this League One fixture will be available to listen to here on Express FM when Pompey Live returns this Saturday (March 10th) afternoon from 2pm.

Kick-off: 3pm!