Dixon on the front foot in Fylde goal quest

The towering midfielder scored twice and gave a man of the match performance in Tuesday’s 6-0 win at Altrincham, which lifted the unbeaten Coasters to third in National League North with a game in hand.

Dixon fired home the second goal of the game from 25 yards before arriving at the back post to turn home Brendon Daniels’ cross.

And Challinor was pleased to see the former Accrington Stanley man, affectionately nicknamed ‘Yaya’ by the fans after the Manchester City star, pop up in the box.

Challinor revealed: “We have asked Bo to play in a slightly different role this season.

“Because of his size and his body language he can look a little laboured at times but, make no mistake, he is as fit as anyone at the club.

“He’s powerful, with electric pace, and we have been encouraging him to get into the box a lot more this season.

“So for him to get his second goal from inside the six- yard box was really pleasing for me.

“We need him to be getting into that kind of position and he will score a lot more goals for us if he does.

“We will work on his fitness, so he will be able to make those runs on a regular basis.

“His strengths are that he’s big, strong and quick, and he proved on Tuesday that he can finish too.

“He will have targets and we also have targets for him because he can score and create goals for us.

“He could have had a couple more on Tuesday and he will be an important player for us this season.”

While Dixon was the standout player at the J. Davidson Stadiu, he wasn’t alone in turning in an excellent display and Challinor hopes to replicate that form when the Coasters travel to Alfreton Town on Saturday.

The Derbyshire club have made a mixed start – losing both Saturdays and winning both Tuesdays so far – though their latest victims were the Brackley Town side that had held Fylde in the opening match at Mill Farm.

Challinor added:“We asked for a reaction on Tuesday after the draw against Brackley because I was disappointed with the performance. We got the reaction and there were stand- out performances all over the pitch.

“I think we got caught up in the occasion last Saturday and we lacked work rate, which is very uncharacteristic of us.

“We challenged the players to put that right and they did that in fantastic fashion.”

It isn’t often a manager gets to give a half-time team-talk with his charges 5-0 up, and Challinor added: “We set the challenge of not conceding in the second half and it was very pleasing that we did that.

“They tried to make it more difficult after the break by getting men behind the ball, but it was a really good performance from us.

“You do feel sorry for their manager after a result like that but we have to be ruthless. Thankfully I’ve never been on the flipside of a result like that. This is a very tough division and we are still a work in process, but we were outstanding and very effective on Tuesday.”

Now it’s a case of trying to follow that for the manager. Challinor said: “We have to back that up tomorrow at Alfreton. We have set the bar high now, so we need to try to get a good result.”

Fylde will again be without midfielder Sam Finley, who sits out the final game of his four-match suspension.

DANIEL AGNEW