Fanzine editor and writer Jane Stuart (@BlackpoolJane), blogger Mitch Cook’s Left Foot (@CooksLeft) and Chris from the Measured Progress site (@OneDaveBamber) have all been impressed by Pool’s return to the second tier and are optimistic about the short, medium and long term future.

How’s the season gone?

Jane: It’s been up and down. It was tough at first until we finalised our squad at the end of August and learned that shithousery was required in this league. Then we settled into a good run. We don’t winter very well so are only recently coming back into form. We’ve been playing really well of late. Is it in time for the playoffs? You can never rule us out.

MCLF: It's been good. We started looking a bit out of our depth, but I think we've now established our right to be at this level. We've picked up some tremendous scalps (Fulham at home, Sheffield United and Middlesbrough away spring to mind) and been unlucky not to get more from a good number of draws or losses.

Chris: About as well as we could have hoped really. Any team coming up from League One in recent years just wants to stay up, because it’s felt like a gap in quality between the two leagues has opened up. But we’re on track to manage it comfortably, so it’s hats off to everyone at the club.

Blackpool league results so far…
Bristol City 1-1 Blackpool Martin 44 — Lowery 90
Blackpool 0-2 Cardiff Bacuna 52, Moore 86
Blackpool 0-1 Coventry Gyokeres 45
Bournemouth 2-2 Blackpool Solanke 6, 19 — Husband 57, Yates pen 60
Millwall 2-1 Blackpool Wallace 63, Cooper 90 — Lavery 56
Blackpool 1-0 Fulham Bowler 49
Blackpool 0-3 Huddersfield Koroma 48, Pearson 54, Hogg 62
Middlesbrough 1-2 Blackpool Tavernier 8 — Ekpiteta 62, Hall og 78
Blackpool 1-0 Barnsley Lavery 32
Hull 1-1 Blackpool Eaves 84 — Lavery 42
Blackpool 2-1 Blackburn Lavery 4, Yates 24 — Brereton 50
Forest 2-1 Blackpool Johnson 22, Grabban 61 — Yates 53
Reading 2-3 Blackpool Dull 11, Bashiru 22 — Dale 69, Yates 73, pen 85
Blackpool 2-0 Preston Anderson 27, Madine 68
Sheff Utd 0-1 Blackpool Anderson 76
Blackpool 0-1 Stoke Fletcher 79
Blackpool 1-1 QPR Madine pen 54 — Willock 26
Swansea 1-1 Blackpool Piroe 35 — Anderson 86
Blackpool 0-0 West Brom
Birmingham 1-0 Blackpool Jutkiewicz 81
Blackpool 0-3 Luton Bradley 42, Adebayo 54, Clark 90
Derby 1-0 Blackpool Plange 51
Blackpool 3-1 Peterborough Anderson 27, Carey 86, Yates 90 — Dembele 11
Huddersfield 3-2 Blackpool Ward 3, Thomas 80, 84 — Yates 1, Madine 18
Blackpool 1-2 Middlesbrough Lavery 90 — Sporar 60, Whatmore 90
Blackpool 1-0 Hull Madine pen 31
Blackpool 1-0 Millwall Lavery 55
Fulham 1-1 Blackpool Mitrovic 6 — Bowler 57
Blackpool 3-1 Bristol City Hamilton 36, Madine 39, Bowler 48 — Wells 86
Coventry 1-1 Blackpool Gyokeres 42 — Madine 24
Blackpool 1-2 Bournemouth Bowler 37 — Lowe 86, Dembele 90
Cardiff 1-1 Blackpool Bagan 49 — Ekpiteta 11

Safety presumably was the main aim so a successful year?

Jane: The main aim yes but this team will never be satisfied with simply staying up. We have real ambition.

MCLF: Yes, but I think we'd all be disappointed if we finished 21st. At times it's felt like we could really push into the chasing pack but we're just a bit short in my opinion. Likely midtable is a great achievement.

Chris: Absolutely. Any talk of play-offs would have been a bit delusional, so safety (and six points off PNE) represents a very good season. A win at Deepdale in April and it should be mission accomplished.

Impressed with several of your players, obviously Bowler is getting linked elsewhere, is the fear this team will be broken up or will the recruitment that brought it together in the first place do big things with the money if they do leave?

Jane: Part of our business model is to take a turn on players we’ve developed. Bowler is obviously attracting attention because he’s really special. I expect he will go in the summer if we don’t go up. But, unlike under our previous owners, we know any profit will go back into the club. Also we have a good academy being built now so we’ll always have new stock coming through.

MCLF: We've got most of the players under contract so we don't have to break the side up. I think it's likely one or two will move on to a higher level. The money is important. We have our strengths but we also need to address weaknesses and it will be interesting to see how we recruit with a bit more financial muscle as so far, we've been very much about hidden gems and free transfers. It's worked pretty well, we've discovered some real class (Sonny Carey, signed from Kings Lynn, Shayne Lavery from the Northern Irish league are great examples of players who've looked up to the job). Like anyone, we've also signed a few less successful players along the way but I think, in general, we have faith that we'll spend what we get well.

Chris: Other than Bowler, I don’t think the team has too much star quality in the traditional sense and that will have the vultures circling. So much of our success is built on the collective and how well drilled we are. The biggest loss would definitely be Neil Critchley, so if we hang on to him I think we can ride out the loss of Bowler or any other individual players. We seem to have built a nicely balanced squad whereby injuries and suspensions don’t seem to knock us too much.

What January business did you do? What did you need to do?

Jane: We got rid of all the dead wood.

MCLF: We needed a really good central midfielder. We didn't sign one. We got Jake Beesley from Rochdale (big striker) and Charlie Kirk from Charlton (left winger/wing back.) We made Owen Dale (winger from Crewe) permanent but we'd had him for six months already on loan. We also recalled some players from loans in League One and you'll probably see one of them, Jordan Thorniley, in the team.

Chris: Keeping Josh Bowler was the thing that kept most fans happy. I could understand us wanting to cash in, as ultimately we need to be a selling club to make us sustainable at this level, but seeing him in tangerine for a bit longer is a great feeling. Most of the business done was fairly low key with recalling Jordan Thorniley and Ethan Robson from their loans in League One. Thorniley in particular has shone in defence since coming back. We made Owen Dale’s loan permanent and also brought in his ex-Crewe teammate Charlie Kirk from Charlton but both are still waiting to make a big impact. Same goes for Jake Beesley who came in from Rochdale as a backup target man for Gary Madine. The worst departure was Cardiff recalling Ryan Wintle who had been superb during his loan spell. It has left us a little lighter in central midfield than I’d like.

Summer Ins: >>> Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel, 22, RB, Forest, £700k >>> Sonny Carey, 20, RM, Kings Lynn, Undisclosed >>> Oliver Casey, 20, CB, Leeds, Undisclosed >>> Josh Bowler, 23, RW, Everton, Free >>> Reece James, 27, LB, Doncaster, Free >>> Daniel Grimshaw, 23, GK, Man City, Free >>> Shayne Lavery, 22, CF, Linfield, Free >>> Callum Connolly, 23, DM, Everton, Free >>> Richard Keogh, 34, CB, Huddersfield, Free >>> Tyreece John-Jules, 20, CF, Arsenal, Loan >>> Ryan Wintle, 24, DM, Cardiff, Loan >>> Dujon Sterling, 21, RB, Chelsea, Loan >>> Owen Dale, 22, RW, Crewe, Loan

Winter Outs: >>> Demetri Mitchell, 25, LB, Hibs, Undisclosed >>> Joe Nuttall, 25, CF, Scunthorpe, Undisclosed >>> Daniel Gretarsson, 26, CB, Slask Wroclaw (Poland), Free >>> Teddy Howe, 23, RB, Barnet, Free >>> Oliver Sarkic, 24, CF, Pakhtakor (Uzbekistan), Free >>> Bez Lubala, 24, LW, Northampton, Loan >>> Cameron Antwi, 20, CM, Telford, Loan >>> Doug Tharme, 22, CB, Southport, Loan

Player of the year candidates?

Jane: Josh Bowler is insanely talented, keeper Dan Grimshaw has been awesome, Richard Keogh is very popular. It’s hard to choose really. The whole team is quality.

MCLF: Keshi Anderson for me. He's just an all-round player. Creative and scores goals but also works really hard. Obviously Bowler has been great (recently at least) and our keeper and most of the defence would also get a shout here. Ekpiteta is quality and Keogh has been a revelation (but he's injured).

Chris: Bowler is probably the man to beat but both Marvin Ekpiteta and Keshi Anderson deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. Both men continue to improve despite being in League Two only two years ago.

Weak links in the team?

Jane: I’d like our strikers to be more prolific.

MCLF: Central midifeld. Everyone is hard working/tough tackling. They're all fine individual players, but aside from Sonny Carey who is 19, injured and inexperienced, none of them really have a shot or a clever pass in them very often. Also, right now, we're short of left backs.

Chris: I think it would be unfair to say anyone is a particular weak link as the successful campaign is a real squad performance. However, the left back area is perhaps the one you’d most want to see improvements from if you had to pick one area on the pitch.

Expectations for rest of the season?

Jane: Top ten. Play-offs would be nice…

MCLF: Keep going, keep fighting, more close games, narrow wins, draws and unlucky losses. I'd be astonished if we made the play offs but also incredulous if we get sucked into the relegation fight. I'd also like to see if some fringe players can step up and really challenge for shirts as obviously, we're going to have interest over summer and we need to know how good (or not) some of the players in the 22 can be with next year in mind.

Chris: Just to carry on what we’re doing and ensure we don’t look like we’re on the beach in March. We probably already have enough points to be just about safe and I think are too far away from being able to compete for the top six, but it’d be nice to see us get over the 60 points mark while also seeing the younger players continue their development. Oh, and completing the double over the Nobbers.

Links >>> Blackpool Official Website >>> Bloomfield Road Ground Guide >>> Blackpool Gazette — Local Press >>> A View From The Tower — Message Board >>> Seasiders — Podcast >>> The Mighty Pool — Blog >>> Blackpool supporters trust >>> Mitch Cook’s Left Foot — Contributor’s Blog >>> Measured Progress — Contributor’s Blog

The Twitter @loftforwords @BlackpoolJane, @OneDaveBamber, @CooksLeft

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francisbowles added 10:24 - Feb 23 Thanks to Jane, Mitch and Chris and good luck for the rest of the season. Seems like we need to stop Bowler. It's nice to see him doing well after that rather inactive spell when he left the Rrrrs.
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TacticalR added 18:24 - Feb 23 Thanks to Jane, MCLF and Chris. It sounds like the team have settled comfortably into the division (far more so than the teams that got automatic promotion from League One last season).
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tsbains64 added 14:11 - Feb 24 Bowler was impressive last night
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