AFC Fylde boss ready for new National League season

Last season’s National League North champions are back in the top flight, three years after relegation on the points-per-game method used to decide the 2019/20 Covid-curtailed campaign.

Having ended last season on April 29, the first of Fylde’s six warm-up games – excluding the abandonment against Barnsley – was against Longridge Town on July 4.

Assessing fitness and tactics might have been the aim in those matches, but points are now at stake and Murray is happy with what he has seen over the summer.

“It’s been a long pre-season to be honest,” he said ahead of tomorrow’s match at Maidenhead United.

“I think it’s the longest break I’ve had, leading into a long pre-season, but I’ve been really pleased so far.

“We’ve had some good challenges that have given us different problems that we’ve had to solve.

“There have been a lot of good games where we’ve managed to get some good workouts, which is all part of pre-season.

“We’re really happy with where the squad is in terms of the players we brought in and the players coming back in good shape.”

Although Wrexham and Notts County are no longer in the division following promotions to the EFL, Murray has no doubt about the task facing his players.

A number of former EFL clubs – and Premier League in the case of Oldham Athletic – are all looking for a top-two finish come the end of the campaign.

Murray warned: “Doing my research at the back end of last season and over the summer, the league has picked up in terms of physicality, pace and power.

“We need to step up to that but we have our way of playing and that won’t change.

“There are some huge clubs in there: there are a lot of clubs from down south and the London area, who have a massive pool to choose from when players are released.

“We’re carrying momentum and confidence from the back end of last season but our aim is just to finish as high as we can.

“We won’t put a ceiling on it. We’ll set our targets as we go and take each game as it comes.”