AFC Fylde boss is livid at Coasters' FA Cup collapse to Chesterfield

A furious Dave Challinor says his AFC Fylde players were '˜schooled' by Chesterfield as they crashed out of the FA Cup at the final qualifying stage.
AFC Fylde's Joe Cardle shoots at the Chesterfield goal     Picture: Steve McLellanAFC Fylde's Joe Cardle shoots at the Chesterfield goal     Picture: Steve McLellan
AFC Fylde's Joe Cardle shoots at the Chesterfield goal Picture: Steve McLellan

The Coasters slumped to a 3-1 defeat at home on Saturday, meaning there will be no repeat of last season’s impressive run to the second round.

Challinor laid down the law to his players after the game, claiming they only have themselves to blame for the manner of their FA Cup exit.

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He said: “It was a hard one. I suppose if I’m being honest and you look at a time when you weren’t going to perform well, you’d pick this one.

“But I’m still fuming because people haven’t done what they’ve been asked and we’ve been schooled.

“We got dragged into a game conceding poor free-kicks which meant they could control the tempo of the game.

“First half, we had some good moments and got into some good positions. We score and should score another couple at least. But we then concede some poor goals.

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“When we played at their place in the league we played with our brains and we were clever in what we did. We didn’t do that here.

“We got embroiled in a match that suited them and ultimately we lose as a result of that.

“You’ve got to play sensibly because you’ve got to realise what our strengths are in terms of the personnel we’ve got on the pitch and potentially where we’re a little bit weak. We’re weak because of the size of our team compared to theirs.

“So the technical players need to control the game and ours didn’t. We kept giving the ball away and kept giving poor free-kicks away which resulted in momentum going in their favour.

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“You’ve got to realise how teams try to dictate and Chesterfield dictate by getting the ball forward and getting the ball in the box, whether that be from throw-ins, whether that be from free-kicks from their own half, whatever that might be.

“If you keep giving free-kicks away around the halfway line, it’s going in your box plain and simple.

“So it’s more down to what we did in possession and I thought we were poor.

“If you look at the players we have on the pitch at the end of the game; Joe Cardle (pictured), Ash Hemmings, James Hardy, Danny Rowe, Gime Toure, what do they create? Nothing. Ash hit the bar, that was it.

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“You have to be adaptable and you have to play in different ways. We knew the joy we would get would potentially be down the sides. We did that a little bit but we didn’t punish them when we got our chances. It fizzled out into a frustrating afternoon.”