AFC Fylde boss eyes squad reinforcements

Phillips enjoyed his first victory as Fylde head coach at Boston United last Wednesday.

However, any hopes a corner had been turned were quickly dashed by a 5-0 home hammering against Altrincham at the weekend.

Three of the former England striker’s four games in charge have resulted in heavy defeats, with 13 goals conceded.

Phillips is now convinced that strengthening his squad is the only answer.

He told the club’s media team: “I need bodies in the building, 100 per cent. I’ve told the players, I’m not going to lie about it.

“I need four or five bodies to freshen the place up and challenge the players who are already here. I’ve got serious work to do.

“We’ve been looking anyway but we need to try to hurry that along now for when Gateshead come here.

“They are a really, really good team and, if we are not on it, we could end up with another result like today.”

Regan Linney scored twice inside 10 minutes for Altrincham and completed a hat-trick by half-time.

Fylde’s heaviest National League defeat has left them 20th on 15 points, two points above the bottom four.

The first round of the FA Cup means there are no National League fixtures this weekend and Phillips welcomes the two-week break between games.

He added: “We’re trying to get some people here and get some work into these players who are here.

“They are going to have to work hard this week. There are going to be no days off.

“We need to learn from this because, since I’ve been in the building, we’ve conceded way too many goals.

“I certainly know where the problem lies and I’ll definitely be addressing that.

“I said to them after the Dagenham game ‘don’t anybody be knocking on my door if you aren’t playing on Wednesday’ and the same goes now.

“I thought Ethan Mitchell was excellent. You need 11 of those in your team but, apart from him, I can’t think of any positives which – over 94 minutes – is not acceptable.”