Marcus Braddock previews the Sky Bet League One home game against Blackpool
As the week draws to a close it's time to turn our attention toward our sporting life and in particular Shrewsbury Town who entertain Blackpool this weekend. Following last seasons 12th place in League One, the Tangerines have made a slow start to the new season. A draw at Wycombe on the seasons opening day, a defeat at home to Portsmouth a week later but earlier in the week they did manage a League cup win at home to table topping Barnsley.
The closed season has seen a fair few changes in the Blackpool squad with incoming ex-Salford defender Michael Nottingham and ex-Maidstone midfielder Harry Pritchard both scoring since signing. Defender Chris Taylor and goalkeeper Mark Howard, both arrived in the summer from Bolton and both have slotted right into the starting line up.
Results (Blackpool scorers in brackets)
Sat August 4th Wycombe 0-0 Blackpool L1
Sat August 11th Blackpool 1-2 Portsmouth L1 (Mark Cullen)
Tue August 14th Blackpool 3-1 Barnsley EFL Cup (Armand Gnanduillet, Michael Nottingham, Harry Pritchard)
There still haven't been enough games to draw any reliable conclusions from but there are in game stats. Looking at the Wycombe game at the start of the season, the stats are pretty even apart from the corners conceded with Wycombe winning eight to Blackpool's two. The interesting stat from their Tuesday cup game is that they had less possession (44%) and still won 3-1. In their home defeat to Portsmouth the Tangerines had more shots on and off target, more corners by 4 to 1, committed far fewer fouls but had less possession and lost 2-1.
Referee
Ollie Yates from Staffordshire. Games this season: 2. Yellow cards: 7. Red cards:0.
Assistants
Mark Griffiths and Paul Hobday
Fourth Official
Darren Wilding
Squad News
Town could be without James Bolton, Ollie Norburn and Aaron Amadi-Holloway after knocks against Burton and Charlton.
The Seasiders will be without Jimmy Ryan (knee) and Ryan McLaughlin (hamstring).
Summary
Blackpool are still searching for a replacement manager for Gary Bowyer who moved on recently but caretaker Terry McPhillips is in charge and got his first win on Tuesday after making a raft of changes. Injury forced changes are needed for John Askey so although I could guess who will come in as replacements, they're all still finding their feet so its difficult to predict a result. We look quite exciting going forward which always gives you hope and defensively we need to tighten up on the lapses in concentration but I think that will improve as players get used to each other. I'm certain we have enough to get something this weekend and I'm looking forward to a noisy Montgomery Waters Meadow. So far the support from the safe standing area has been incredible and it would be nice to pack out that end of the stadium completely to increase the atmosphere further.