Continuity is key for AFC Fylde owner

Chris Beech took on the director of football role last December, working alongside head coach Adam Murray.

The pair have led Fylde to one title, having won last season’s National League North as the Coasters returned to non-league’s top flight.

Haythornthwaite said: “You need continuity because football is disruptive. The average term for a manager is under 12 months and when the manager goes, he usually takes everyone with him and you get a merry-go-round which isn’t good.

“With our model, we’ll continue to play the same way and find a coach who wants to play that way so, when Adam moves on one day – hopefully to a higher level – then whoever comes in will know our style of play and Chris will give us that stability and continuity.

“We were able to bring in Chris and Adam at the same time and it’s worked well.

“It allows Adam to get on with what he’s really, really good at, which is coaching players and making them better, without worrying about anything else.

“It’s such a simple model, I don’t know why it took me so long to adopt it.”

Fylde are back in action tonight as they welcome Kidderminster Harriers to Mill Farm.

Haythornthwaite, who once announced a 15-year plan to lift his club into the EFL by 2022, isn’t making predictions about the current campaign.

“Every league is hard to get out of because there are always teams having a go,” he said.

“I'm glad we’re out of National League North, with Scunthorpe and South Shields in there.

“Now it’s a whole new bunch of challenges. We’ll have 14 or 15 overnight stays this season – last season we had three.

“We chose to have those but this season we need them – you can’t play all those games down south without overnight stays.

“We know we have the infrastructure to be an EFL club and that’s still our aim. We’re building this club for the EFL, not for non-league.”