Blackpool boss Simon Grayson considered using teenager Tony Weston against Scunthorpe United

Simon Grayson says Blackpool’s young starlet Tony Weston would have shown up “one or two” of the senior professionals had he played in the EFL Trophy defeat to Scunthorpe United.

The 16-year-old was named in Pool’s squad for the first time in his career in Wednesday night’s second round tie, which the Seasiders lost 3-1.

Weston was considered for a shock introduction to the game off the bench but the Pool boss admits he couldn’t afford to take the risk.

“I’m sure it was a proud moment for him,” Grayson told The Gazette.

“I actually wanted to put him on because he would have at least run around and enjoyed what he was doing. But we had used all our subs up by then anyway.

“It would have been nice if we had got him some game time but I couldn’t run that risk of putting a 16-year-old on when I was trying to win a game.

“When we got back into the game we looked good and their keeper made some great saves, so we might have got something out of it.

“But, judged on the first-half performance, it wasn’t good enough.

“It would have been nice to have seen the young kid get on because he would have run around and shown one or two of the senior pros up.”