‘Strange’ - Blackpool boss Neil Critchley responds to Ryan Lowe criticism as he clarifies selection conversations with Preston North End

The Seasiders named a number of senior players in the 3-0 victory at Springfields, with Marvin Ekpiteta, Andy Lyons, Sonny Carey, Karamoko Dembele and Jake Beesley among those to start.

In his press conference on Thursday, Lowe shared his frustration over the team Blackpool selected.

“I was a bit disappointed, because we had a conversation with them that we were going to play the kids - and they chose to bring senior players,” he told the LEP.

"So, that is their problem, not ours. We won’t do that again.

"I was disappointed with them; how they went about it. I suppose it helped our youngsters, really.

“We wanted to play our youngsters against their youngsters, which would’ve been fair.

"But, they chose to have their first team players and first team staff there.

"That is their prerogative, not ours.

"Our kids probably got more out of it than their pros probably got out of it, because it was a big test for them.

“So yeah, disappointed in what they did, but that’s Blackpool for you.”

Responding to Lowe’s comments, Critchley states the Seasiders had made their intentions clear to North End prior to the day of the match.

"I felt it was pretty strange to be honest,” he said.

"Ryan was fully aware of what we were intending to do because out of respect, we let them know early last week.

"We take a lot of time over what is right for our players.

"We’ve got a lot of midweek games coming up and this was the perfect opportunity for some people to play.

"We let Preston know. Initially I believe they said they were going to play some of their fringe players, and the game was changed to Euxton.

"We then found out later in the week that they had changed their decision, which is fine- no problem.

"They said they were going to play younger players- no problem, that’s up to them, but our senior players needed to play and at that stage it was too late in the day for us to rearrange another game, so we decided to carry on with our original plan, which they were fully aware of.

"I’m not sure why Ryan said what he did, in the way he did.

"Some of our players who are not in the team will end up playing, and they need to be ready. The way to get them ready is for them to play games.

"Tuesday was the natural time for us to get a game into them.

"Preston chose to name younger players, that was entirely their decision.”

Critchley believes the fixture against Preston was a good experience for the players from the Seasiders’ development squad.

"It’s always good for the younger lads to play with the senior players,” he added.

"That’s the next step for them.

"It’s a great learning experience for them.

"That’s probably worth 10 or 20 of our coaching sessions.

"I hope they benefited from that and it rubs off on them.

"We were there because we want to see how they’re playing, and that was the perfect opportunity.”