Neil Critchley praised defender Olly Casey’s determination after he signed a new contract with the Club this week.
The Seasiders centre half is suspended for this weekend’s Sky Bet League One clash with Bolton Wanderers, but he has been one of the season’s standout performers. Casey’s impact has been a source of real positivity for Pool’s Head Coach following a successful loan spell with Forest Green Rovers in 2022/23. He’s done very well, he’s been brilliant,” Critchley stated. That is what we want to be as a club, giving young players the opportunity to come, develop, get in the team, progress, and then be rewarded.” Olly has had to be patient and diligent.
“I tell all of the young players between the ages of 18 and 23, you need mental stamina.” Continuous ups will be extremely rare, and Olly came here and had to go out on loan. He had to be patient at the start of the season, but now he’s in and taking that chance.
“That’s a reward for his perseverance, ability, and character.” That is who we want to be as a football club: to bring in those players, give them a chance to develop, and then reward them. Critchley provided an update on the injury progress of those who were unavailable for selection against Bromley in the week leading up to the weekend’s trip to the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
“We’re getting there,” Critchley said.
“As the days pass, it indicates that they are holding more training sessions. We then choose the right game or the right moment when we believe they have done enough to be considered for selection. That could mean they play a couple of development squad games. That is something we must discuss. We also have a game against Morecambe in the middle of the week. Those players are getting closer all the time, and we’re hoping that they will increase our numbers and make things even more difficult for me in the future.
The Seasiders are in good form, having lost just once in their last eight matches across all competitions, and will look to put their form to the test against a side that is expected to compete for promotion this season. Critchley, on the other hand, is still looking for more from his team after recent performances.
“I’m not satisfied because I think we should have won both games against Fleetwood and Bromley,” he said. We’re always looking for more. Our performance at Fleetwood deserved three points, but we conceded poor goals, and conceding poor goals in any game is a problem. We created a problem for ourselves in that game, but we also demonstrated a fantastic response, plenty of spirit, heart, and ability.
It was a fantastic game to watch if you were a neutral, but I still believe we should have won and received three points. Bromley was a different type of game, but we got the job done.
“We scored a couple of goals early on with two quality moments.” We didn’t play particularly well in the second half, but we did enough to advance to the second round, and Bolton will be a completely different test this Saturday.
