Neil Critchley on Kenny Dougall's surprise Blackpool absence, Marvin Ekpiteta's fitness and Kevin Stewart getting 'stronger and stronger'

The midfielder has been a regular for the Seasiders, so it came as a shock not to see him in the 18 for their 1-1 draw against Cardiff City on Saturday.

But speaking after the game, Blackpool’s head coach said it was just a case of resting the 28-year-old ahead of a busy week, as Critchley’s side take on QPR on Wednesday night before hosting Reading at Bloomfield Road next Saturday.

“Kenny is fine,” Critchley told The Gazette.

“He’s played a lot of minutes this season, a lot of games, so I’m sure the situation will look different on Wednesday and next Saturday.”

In Dougall’s absence, Kevin Stewart stepped up once again with a virtuoso display in the middle of the park.

It was his second 90 minutes on the spin on his return from a lengthy lay-off as a result of an ankle injury.

“He seems to get stronger the longer the game goes, he sort of defies logic really. As the game dies he gets stronger and stronger,” Critchley added.

“His influence grows as the game goes on, so that’s another big bonus getting him 90 minutes again.

“We will have to think about the next two games and how we manage him, but him and Callum Connolly give you everything. They’re so honest, as all the players are.

“We could have shown a bit more craft, intelligence and thought with what we did. Had we done that, we would have pinned them back for longer periods in the second-half and got success from that.”

It was also a major boost for Blackpool to have skipper Marvin Ekpiteta available to start against the Bluebirds.

The defender, who looked to have injured his hamstring in last week’s defeat to Bournemouth, scored Blackpool’s goal with an early header.

“We think long and hard about the decisions we make for every game,” Critchley said, when asked how tough a decision it was to include Ekpiteta in his starting line-up.

“We had some positive news from the scan he had and then he trained a little bit on Thursday and Friday was a lot more positive.

“You have to take the player’s thoughts and feelings into account and he felt he was fine to play.

“I thought he was excellent, him and Jordan Thorniley were very good against a real physical opponent. They stood up and competed extremely well.

“He seems to have a little knack of getting a goal every now and then, when the ball drops to him he’s actually a good finisher and it was a really good header from him.

“If he can just get a few more, if two can become five or six, then people always take notice of centre backs who score goals from set pieces so it’s something he might look to improve on a little bit.”

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