Monday 4 August 2014 21:30, UK
Tony McMahon believes Blackpool are 'getting there' but is expecting to welcome plenty more fresh faces to the club.
The Bloomfield Road outfit began pre-season with just eight senior players on their books, with no goalkeeper among them.
Addressing that issue has been the challenge posed to new manager Jose Riga.
He has endured his struggles in the pursuit of fresh faces, but has been slowly building ahead of Saturday’s season opener against Nottingham Forest.
McMahon, who joined Blackpool in January from Sheffield United, admits there is still work to be done but feels Riga’s men are heading in the right direction.
He said: “We are getting there, slowly but surely.
“We all need to stick together, as players and fans. We all just need to keep going. It’s improving and it will come together.
“We should all be more optimistic now. We’ve seen a lot of new faces come in and we think we’ll get more. The sooner the new faces come in, the better.”
A gutsy display in a 1-0 defeat to Premier League new boys Burnley on Saturday suggests Blackpool should not be underestimated – with many having already written them off.
McMahon added: “It was a good 90 minutes for me personally. It was hard work.
“It was much-needed minutes for the lads, so all in all it was a good exercise.
“You can probably see we are short on fitness but we have to stick together, dig in and get ready for next week.
“I thought a few of the lads who came in did well but we are all new as this is a new squad.
“We have a full week now before the season starts and we all need to work hard. We can only do what we can on the pitch. We just need to play our football and stick together.
“The manager won’t change how he wants to play and I think you could see our quality at times.”
