Neil Critchley promises ‘important summer’ of squad rebuilding at Blackpool

Blackpool head coach Neil Critchley feels his squad face a “pivotal” summer of rebuilding after missing out on the Sky Bet League One play-offs this season following a 3-2 defeat at Reading.

Karamoko Dembele gave Blackpool a fourth-minute lead only for Sam Smith to equalise for Reading on the brink of half-time.

Goals from Harvey Knibbs and Femi Azeez in a three-minute spell in the second half gave the hosts a 3-1 lead, with Jordan Gabriel’s late effort a mere consolation.

“I think that we face an important summer,” Critchley said. “If you look at the players that we inherited or signed when I first came here, the natural cycle of that squad is coming to an end.

“The summer is a chance for us to refresh and move forward. It’s a really pivotal time for us.

“This game did sort of reflect our season, a case of what might have been.

“We started well, got the goal and I felt that we were quite comfortable in the first half.

“But we gave away a really poor goal just before half-time.

“We started the second half better, we had the ascendancy, but Reading knew that we had to win the game.

“They’ve got some good attacking players, with great athleticism, and they were encouraging them to stay up front.

“To them, losing the game meant little. They broke and they scored but we kept going to the end.

“But it wasn’t today that we missed out on the play-offs. It’s over the 46 games and – in certain games, not every one – we’ve fallen short.”

Reading finished in 17th place, having clinched their safety with two games to spare.

“It was a great way to end our season,” Reading manager Ruben Selles said. “It’s always important to finish with a win and a good performance.

“That just gives us a flavour of what we want going forward. We want to get more of that next season. That’s our motivation to come back fit.

“We now have the off-season to review this season and prepare for the next challenge ahead. It’s a good feeling.

“Our first five to 10 minutes wasn’t that good. We’ve had that a few times this season, I don’t like that.

“We have to correct that and it will be one of our keys points during the summer.

“In the games that we can be more comfortable, when we have nothing to play for, we shouldn’t concede that early goal that makes us have to come from behind.

“But we managed to come back and score the goal before half-time and then we came out stronger in the second half.

“Today was probably a perfect example of what has been the season for us.”