Challinor: Fylde answered critics in crazy game

The second half lasted well over an hour after a break of more than 15 minutes while injured Chorley striker Marcus Carver was treated.

Challinor said: “It was a crazy second half. I’ve never been involved in a game when you have to go off the pitch for an injury.

“From our perspective, a lot of questions have been asked of us this week, unfairly so in my opinion.

“We’ve done well at the start of the season and we’ve got ourselves into a position where we are top of the league.

“For whatever reason we didn’t perform on Boxing Day and some would say that we were rightly criticised, but I will back my players all day.

“I think people came here thinking we would get rolled over, and we’ve shown fantastic character.

“We were down to the bare bones. We really only had 13 fit senior professionals and we put in a terrific performance.

“It was a gritty performance. We’ve put our bodies on the line and defended really, really well.

“The lad (Chorley’s Adam Blakeman) will never score a goal like that again in his life but again we showed great character to come from behind to win the game.

“Hopefully this performance has put to rest some doubters and shown that we can dig out a result.”