Blackpool suffered a double injury blow on Saturday afternoon, despite running out 4-1 winners against Bolton Wanderers.
The Lancashire side haven’t had it all their way this week, they exited the EFL trophy at the semi-finals stage on Tuesday as they went down 3-0 to fellow League One side Peterborough United.
The Seasiders showed great spirit recover from that setback to secure three points against Bolton though, with goals from Jake Beesley (2), Marvin Ekpiteta and Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel. George Thomason opened the scoring for the visitors, who later had captain Ricardo Santos sent off. The Trotters remain third but are now just three points ahead of Barnsley.
The result did come at a cost, however, as the Tangerines lost striker Shayne Lavery and wing-back Hayden Coulson at half-time to injury.
Speaking via Blackpool Gazette, Seasiders boss Neil Critchley said:
“We weren’t planning on bringing Shayne or Hayden off but they flagged up an issue so we brought them off straight away. Hopefully, they’re not too serious, but that’s why Andy and Kyle came on.
“It was muscle soreness and tiredness. We’ll assess them and hopefully, we’ve caught it quickly enough, and we’ve not exposed them in the second half to make it worse.”
There was, however, some good injury news for the play-off chasers, as top scorer Jordan Rhodes was confirmed to be closing in on a return from the rib injury that has kept him out of action since the 1-1 draw with Charlton Athletic last month.
Speaking about Rhodes, Critchley added:
“He’s getting closer- doing more ball work and fitness work.
“We’ll see about Tuesday, but hopefully he’s not too far away.”
The Lancashire sides next two fixtures come against Leyton Orient on Tuesday evening before a tough trip to relegation-threatened Shrewsbury Town next Saturday.
Writer’s View
Lavery will be a huge miss. His return of four goals from 10 starts is impressive, but just one from his 12 appearances from the bench dilutes his ratio. With Rhodes due back fairly soon it shouldn’t hit the Tangerines too hard though.
Coulson has played a key role since joining on loan from Middlesbrough in January, so Critchley will be hoping that his absence will be a short one. Blackpool do have strength in numbers and ample quality cover, and still stand an excellent chance of reaching the play-offs.
