AFC Fylde boss demands a defensive improvement

The Coasters have leaked more goals, 19, than any other side in the National League.

They conceded three for the fourth match running in last weekend’s 3-1 defeat at Dagenham & Redbridge.

Head coach Murray admits his post-match tirades are becoming as repetitive as the defensive errors.

“I’m boring myself saying the same things but we’re allowing too many shots and we don’t know how to defend our box,” he told the club’s media team.

“You have a shot at us and you score. You may as well just replay the past five interviews I’ve done because it’s exactly the same.

“You can work on the training ground for as many hours as you want but you can’t insert steel into certain parts of the team. You either have it or you haven’t.

“We aren’t showing enough fighting spirit or doing the basics well enough. We’ve spent weeks and weeks on it and we’re still not hitting the mark.

“Something has to change. If results keep going like that, then it’s me that is changed but we cannot defend like that as a team. It’s not good enough.”

Fylde have won one of their first seven games since promotion, though Saturday’s outcome in London could have been different.

Two down at half-time, Fylde were given a lifeline by Taelor O’Kane’s first goal for the club and would have drawn level had Siya Ligendza’s strike not been disallowed.

Murray, however, is not looking for excuses and added: “You have to earn that rub of the green and that little bit of luck.

“We can’t keep conceding the type of goals we are and all the goals are exactly the same.”

Fylde’s next two games are at Mill Farm, starting against Aldershot on Saturday, but Murray says a new mindset is needed wherever they play.

“At the minute, it doesn’t matter if we score two, three or four because we aren’t keeping the other end closed,” he said, “It’s tin hats on and get to work.”