Blackpool FC: Dan Grimshaw grateful to Oxford United manager for support during European adventure- as he highlights key similarity to Neil Critchley

The 25-year-old worked under the Yellows boss while on loan with Lommel SK in Belgium during his time with Manchester City.

Grimshaw states he enjoyed working under Manning, and believes there’s similarities between him and Blackpool boss Neil Critchley.

“He gave me a chance in Belgium,” he explained.

“There were times there when it was really tough because it was the first time I had moved away but he was really good with me.

“We got on well- he’s a really good manager.

“It was the first time I had been in a first team environment properly, so I had to deal with the challenges of not playing at first and having difficult conversations with Liam.

“He was someone you could approach, similar to how the gaffer here is- it wasn’t always just about football either.

“He was English as well, and we were both away from family, so he helped me a lot.

“It was Covid while I was over there, so I didn’t get to experience it fully, but it was nice to be in a different culture.

“It was challenging, you couldn’t really see your family, but it did help me.

“Living completely alone, I had to learn how to cook- I didn’t have a signature dish, I kept it simple.”

Blackpool head into Saturday’s game against Oxford United on the back of last week’s 3-0 victory over Stevenage at Bloomfield.

“We’ve started to build momentum now,” Grimshaw added.

“We had a few results early on where we expected better, but it’s a process and we’ve started to see the positives of that now.

“We’ve come down a division and there’s big pressure to go straight back up.

“The Stevenage win was a complete performance, you could see the things we had been working on.

“With the games we’ve got, we know this is a big time to show where we are going to be at the end of the season.

“We feel like we should be on more points than we are, but we’re in a good position and we’ll keep building.”