Blackpool hopeful of an FA Cup upset against Premier League Brighton

Blackpool will head to the Amex Stadium hopeful of another FA Cup upset against Brighton on Saturday.

The Seasiders dispatched Premier League opposition in West Brom in the previous round on penalties at Bloomfield Road, with Brighton scraping past League Two Newport County, also on penalties, to set up the fourth round tie.

Neil Critchley’s side beat top flight opposition for the first time since 1976 against Sam Allardyce’s side and will seek for positive news on the injury front after losing a number of players in the past weeks. The Blackpool manager is hopeful that Dan Ballard, Grant Ward and Bez Lubala will all be available following recent injury concerns.

For Graham Potter’s side, they put out a strong side against Newport and are expected to do the same here as they look to make a play for a chance at silverware this season. They will be without a number of players including Tariq Lamptey, Adam Lallana, Danny Welbeck, Alizera Jahanbakhsh and Aaron Connolly as they seek to progress to the latter stages of the competition.

Both sides are building in a similar vain, albeit at drastically different levels, with Critchley and Potter both young, progressive coaches that look to play an expansive style of play where possible and rely on data-led recruitment to be more strategic in the transfer market.

In Tony Bloom and Simon Sadler they both have owners who believe in the modern facets of football business management and are consistently building their clubs around these models.

With the styles of play in mind both sides have found themselves unfortunate this season, creating a mass of chances without having the clinical edge in spells to make them count. In terms of expected goals (xG) Brighton sit sixth in the Premier League expected points table, with Blackpool sitting eighth in the League One equivalent.

This shows that both sides have underperformed this season in terms of actual results and they will both be hoping that these chances turn into goals on Saturday afternoon.

Blackpool will be looking to Gary Madine as their focal point up front, having been pivotal in the previous round with his hold-up play and relationship with Jerry Yates that produced success last time out.

Brighton will look to Neil Maupay to provide the clinical spark for them in this one, leading on from his superb display in leading the line away at Elland Road against Leeds in their most recent Premier League fixture.

Last time out between the sides Jamie O’Hara provided the winner for the Seasiders in a 2015 Championship fixture, the last season Blackpool spent in the second division before their demise under Oyston ownership. Much has changed since then and both clubs continue to rise.

Whilst Brighton are the evident favourites for this game, Blackpool will be expected to take the game to them and there could be a real chance of a large number of goals in this one.

The game kicks off at 3pm GMT on Saturday.

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