There’s no game for the Seasiders this Saturday, but, of course, there is the small matter of the local derby match with Preston North End on Sunday.

All tickets for home supporters have been snapped up, and the away section should also be sold out before the day.

This is the match that matters most, and the chance for players to go down in club folklore, the way Wes Hoolahan did with his cheeky penalty kick that won the game in the rain at Deepdale last season.

They should have won at Bloomfield Road too, but were denied by Preston keeper Andy Lonergan.

Just the one goal from the penalty spot from those two games emphasised how tight and awkward these games are, and the sides go into this game looking evenly matched.

Preston edged ahead in the table on goal difference with their point at Norwich last Saturday, while Blackpool were going down by the only goal of the game at home to the other East Anglian side, Ipswich.

It was not a pretty performance by the Seasiders, with so many players off-colour on the day and it was a wasted opportunity to build on the mid-table position that had been established during a run of just one defeat in the previous nine games.

Simon Grayson declared it as the worst performance of the season (he has presumably forgotten about Burnley away!) The non-show at Turf Moor was the other time this season that the team has really disappointed, but it was followed up by the win at Birmingham City a few days later.

If boss Simon Grayson can get a similar response and result this weekend, the fans will instantly forget the wastefulness of last week. Not least because Blackpool would go back above Preston in the table, with a three point gap.

David Vaughan has joined the injury list, but the manager is hopeful he will be declared fit for the derby.

There are also doubts about Danny Coid, who missed the Ipswich match due an injury picked up in training last week.

Steve Kabba returned as a substitute on Saturday, and will hope to be involved again.

The recent substitute appearances of Adam Hammill, who is getting back to form again, have put him in with a good chance of starting the match, especially if Vaughan is not at full fitness.

Midfield workhorse Keith Southern is looking forward to Sunday, as he has yet to experience the intensity of a game against the club’s nearest neighbours, having missed both encounters last season through injury: "It's the game the die-hard Blackpool fans look out for and I understand that because I'm a Blackpool fan at heart now as well."

Southern admits that playing at home is proving more difficult than games away from Bloomfield Road at the moment, which is perhaps the biggest concern ahead of Sunday.

He said: "Sometimes home games aren't as easy as you think.

"We may be suited better to playing away from home with the way that we counter attack and hit teams on the break."

Maybe the falling attendances at Bloomfield Road are having an effect on the team.

The crowd was a big factor in last season’s excellent home record, when many games were sold out, but this season has seen a sharp drop in the number of home fans as a result of the sharp increase in ticket prices, and the credit crunch.

The club has responded by offering all three December home matches (against Charlton, Swansea and Wolves) for the price of two.