Michael Appleton has expressed some natural envy at Norwich City's frontline options - but believes his side is up to the task of nullifying them.

The Canaries travel to Blackpool on Saturday hoping to stretch their unbeaten Championship run to eight matches.

Appleton's side have only won once on home turf this season and have lacked consistency in their second season in the Championship after promotion from League One in 2020/21.

The former Lincoln and Oxford boss returned for his second spell in charge of the Tangerines following the departure of Neil Critchley earlier in the summer after he joined Steven Gerrard's coaching team at Aston Villa.

Despite Norwich's obvious qualities and the expectation that they will control large swathes of the encounter, Appleton insists his side can match them.

“Their front line clearly at this level is something to be jealous about at times and they’re going to keep us on our toes and have a lot more of the ball than we are," Appleton told the Blackpool Gazette.

“I think if they’re not first they’re second in the league in terms of keeping hold of the ball and dealing with it well, so we know what we’re going to be up against, but I think other sides that have come here already this season have realised and are aware of the threat that we have.

“We’ve had a couple of narrow defeats at home in the first 10 games, but I thought we were ridiculously unfortunate against Swansea where I thought we played very well. We could’ve nicked something in the last few moments of the game against Blackburn, so we’ve been pretty competitive."

Blackpool come into this encounter off the back of consecutive defeats to Rotherham and Millwall prior to the international break.

The Pink Un: Blackpool are hoping to return to winning ways against Norwich City on Saturday.Blackpool are hoping to return to winning ways against Norwich City on Saturday. (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

But Appleton isn't unduly concerned about their recent form.

“We’re going to have back-to-back defeats throughout the season and that’s going to happen to the best teams,” he said.

“There’s been spells over the last two seasons where teams have gone on poor runs, but they’ve been able to cope with that and deal with that and be strong.

“I think it’s been a steady start, in terms of what I’d expect from us.

“We’ve had some really good moments, we’ve had some not so good moments, but on the whole, we’ve been in pretty much every single game we’ve played other than the Rotherham game.”