Neil Critchley believes Blackpool's inexperienced players are 'growing' into life in the Championship

Before the season got underway, only a handful of Pool players - like Chris Maxwell, Richard Keogh, Kevin Stewart and Gary Madine - had prior experience of playing in the second tier on a regular basis.

The vast majority of the rest, meanwhile, are enjoying their first taste of the Championship.

Critchley concedes it took some of them a bit of time to adjust, but since then the Seasiders have demonstrated they belong in the division.

“I think we’ve grown over the course of the season,” Pool’s head coach said.

“We’ve got some inexperienced players at this level but they’re growing into this level of football.

“Early on into the season when we were going to big clubs and going to big atmospheres, we weren’t quite ourselves.

“But we were ourselves in a really big atmosphere (against Preston) last Tuesday and we were again against Blackburn at the weekend.

“We’ve grown over the course of the season and we’ve nearly been there, but that hope has evaporated this week unfortunately.

“But we’ve got six games to go. We’ve got to keep going, we will keep going. Let’s see where we can get to.”

The Seasiders return to action this Easter weekend with a double header against West Brom and Birmingham City.

It comes on the back of a well-earned 1-1 draw against Blackburn, where Critchley’s side were much improved from the derby defeat to Preston in their last game.

Pool were roared on by 3,678 fans at Ewood Park last weekend as they faced their second Lancashire derby in the space of just five days.

“They were incredible,” Critchley said.

“I think there were nearly 4,000 of them here and they feel it like we feel it when we lose.

“That was particularly the case on Tuesday because I can assure you it’s the worst feeling when you lose.