After struggling to assemble a squad all summer, troubled Championship side Blackpool named only four substitutes for their season opener at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Blackpool's recruitment problems in pre-season have been well-documented as they lost 27 players in the summer and had just eight professionals under contract two weeks ago.
Manager José Riga tried his best to scramble to actually field a team for the league opener and managed to sign 12 players in 12 days.
Despite securing a handful of new signings, Blackpool failed to register them before the Football League's deadline.
As a result, Riga was forced to include two youth team players on his bench to take the tally to four - three short of the available seven.
"During the day we managed to get more. There were two 17-year-olds on the bench who were scholars."
Unfortunately for the Tangerines, their patched-together team wasn't enough to get a result against Forest as they fell 2-0 to the hosts.
Blackpool's recruitment problems in pre-season have been well-documented as they lost 27 players in the summer and had just eight professionals under contract two weeks ago.
Manager José Riga tried his best to scramble to actually field a team for the league opener and managed to sign 12 players in 12 days.
Despite securing a handful of new signings, Blackpool failed to register them before the Football League's deadline.
As a result, Riga was forced to include two youth team players on his bench to take the tally to four - three short of the available seven.
Blackpool start with just four players on the bench against Nottingham Forest http://t.co/GwjzfbRdrc #bbcfootball pic.twitter.com/EjJGuFAffs
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 9, 2014"During the day we managed to get more. There were two 17-year-olds on the bench who were scholars."
Unfortunately for the Tangerines, their patched-together team wasn't enough to get a result against Forest as they fell 2-0 to the hosts.
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