AFC Fylde boss Jim Bentley's "12-game plan" to beat the drop is off to a great start

Jim Bentley says a team meeting helped AFC Fylde to turn the corner

AFC Fylde 1 Aldershot Town 0: First-half goal boosts the Coasters’ survival bid

Fylde are still second-bottom of the National League table but are now only four points from safety with nine matches remaining.

“The win was just what was needed – we’ve had a good week,” Bentley said after Saturday’s win.

“While I’ve been positive and complimentary about how we’ve gone about our jobs with regard to how well we’ve been playing, I don’t think we’ve got the results we’ve deserved.

“There have been certain games where that hasn’t applied – take the Dover game (5-1 loss), one that got away from us as can happen at any level, and that was when we got to a stage where we couldn’t accept it.

“We’ve had large discussions and meetings. The club have been great with backing us with certain things, we’ve laid down a plan and a mini-league table and it’s now about being positive for the future.

“All the cliches about rolling our sleeves up and coming out fighting – that’s what we have to do.

“As it is at the minute, the games that we’re playing aren’t pretty and aren’t our brand – we’ve shown in large spells that we can play good football – but we have to find a way of winning. It’s just about grinding out results now.

“Ultimately, when we had our meeting, our 12-game plan, we’ve come on strong. We wanted to beat Solihull last week but I do think it was a really good point in the end.

“It was a good clean sheet and it was important that we never lost that game. At times it takes a point to turn the cycle and it did.

“We got a nice vibe after that, where we went on to earn a great result on Tuesday and now onto today, where we’ve ended up with seven points from a possible nine.

“A big week for us, though, is all that it is. It’s gone and we have to move forward into the future now.

“We’ll show the same determination, desire and togetherness that have been evident recently.

“What we’ve seen is the way that if someone makes a mistake, a team-mate is getting round to cover.

“We had situations against Aldershot where Ryan Croasdale and Tyler French made excellent last-ditch interventions.

“We’ve now given ourselves a leg up, and we know which teams we’re clawing back.

“We have some big games to come, and we’ll focus on getting points on the board. We’ve got games against teams in and around us, which hopefully we can get points from.”