FYLDE director of rugby Mark Nelson described the run-up to Christmas as "pivotal" to the club's season as they bid to revive their campaign after a defeat at Westoe which he branded "unacceptable".
Nelson says their North-East hosts celebrated their 43-21 victory "as if they had won the FA Cup" and he feels this is the key to Fylde's struggles on the road – unbeaten at home, Nelson's side have lost five out of seven away in National League two.
The coach said: "A lot of teams are targeting Fylde when we visit their ground. They want to prove a point because of the history and status of our club and we have to find a way of countering that."
As for the "unbelievable" 19 minutes in the run-up to half-time which cost his side Saturday's game, Nelson said: "We shipped five tries – four of them soft – and we basically imploded. We had a game plan which would have worked and what happened is unacceptable at this level.
"During that 20 minutes of madness the collective alignment and tackling by the backs was awful.
"Individually there were a lot of reasonable performances and the forwards did really well, but organisationally we did not play to the defensive patterns we had worked on.
"The first 20 minutes were just as I envisaged and we kept it close up a huge slope. We won the second half, and would have done so more convincingly had the match situation allowed us to kick the numerous penalties we received.
"But we lost because of a 20-minute aberration, when we allowed ourselves to be dictated to by a team that rode their luck and it paid off for them. It was similar to the Waterloo game, when we conceded three tries in quick succession."
Looking ahead to Saturday's visit of Harrogate to the Woodlands, followed by clashes with leaders Loughborough Students and Preston Grasshoppers, Nelson added: "The three teams we play before Christmas are all above us in the table, so they pivotal for us. There has to be much greater quality and focus in these crucial games."
*NELSON admits he is not optimistic of completing the signing of former Warrington Wolves RL winger Taylor Welch after a frustrating week attempting to cut through red tape.
Welch, who has joint British and American nationality, cannot complete his registration without producing passport pages and Nelson has been unable to get hold of the paperwork.
He said: "I probably wasted eight man hours speaking to agencies ranging from the American Embassy in London to offices in Denver, Colorado. I'm not holding out too much hope now."
