Neil Critchley on Ethan Robson's status and Dan Ballard's fitness ahead of Blackpool's encounter against Hull City

The midfielder was rested on Saturday for Blackpool’s goalless draw against Oxford United, with Grant Ward preferred in midfield.

There are no fitness concerns over Robson, but with so many games coming up over the Christmas period Critchley opted to give the 24-year-old a breather.

"It was just selection, so he'll be back up for selection on Tuesday night,” Critchley told The Gazette.

"He's a little bit similar to Grant Ward and those players in the middle of the pitch, the ones who give a lot physically. It's just a chance to freshen things up from time to time.

"There's no problem with Ethan, he'll be available for selection."

The only player missing for Blackpool at the weekend was Dan Ballard, who continues to recover from a hamstring problem he suffered following the recent win against Portsmouth.

Critchley is pleased with the defender’s progress and is hopeful of having him back for the weekend’s trip to Accrington.

"He's not too far away,” Pool’s head coach said.

"He's done pretty much all he needs to do on his own in terms of his rehab, so he'll be looking to return to team training in the next few days. Fingers crossed for that.

“He won't make tomorrow night but hopefully he might be available for the weekend."

Reflecting on Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Oxford, Critchley spoke of his disappointment at how his side were unable to convert their dominance into three points.

"It was two points dropped,” he said.

"We were the team that were always on the front foot looking to take the game to the opposition.

"I think you could see they were settling for a point, so it was frustrating we didn't score and break them down.

"I think if we had done that when we were in the ascendancy, particularly early on in the game and after half-time, then we would have broken their resilience a little bit. But we couldn't quite do that.

"It's still a clean sheet and we'll take a point, but in reflection it's a game we should have won.

"They could have won it late on and those sort of things were going against us at the beginning of the season, that header would have crept inside the post and we would have been coming off having lost 1-0 thinking 'how has that happened?'

"We've had quite a few of those this season, so for Maxi (Chris Maxwell) to pull off a vital save - and it was a terrific save - got us a point.

"But it would have been a total injustice had we not got a point from the game because we deserved all three."

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