AFC Fylde boss learns in defeat

The Coasters were beaten for the second time in four National League matches when losing 3-2 at Grosvenor Vale last Saturday.

Having trailed early on, goals from Gold Omotayo and Nick Haughton had Murray’s players in front by the hour mark.

However, Pierce Bird then became the third Fylde player to be sent off this season after collecting two yellow cards.

Despite being a man down, they were on the verge of victory until the hosts levelled on 86 minutes and scored the winner in the ninth minute of stoppage time.

Speaking afterwards, Murray delivered some strong words to his players who travel to Hartlepool United on Saturday before hosting Altrincham on Bank Holiday Monday.

He said: “I’ll have to be careful what I say because, at the minute, there’s still a lot of emotion flying around.

“I’m learning some real big lessons about the environment, individuals, the group as a whole.

“We had a game plan that we set out, that we worked on all week. Certain people go off game plan and we end up conceding goals.

“The red card’s absolutely killed us. We put ourselves into a great position against a really good possession-based team that cause a lot of people problems, but to go down to 10 men and expect to get a result is going to be tough.

“When we do go down to 10 men, I didn’t see enough people taking responsibility. We backed off, we backed off and we backed off, and that’s not us.

“I’m seeing too many people go into safe mode and we’ve never been a safe team, we’ve never been a defensive team, we’ve never been a team that takes backward steps.

“We’ve always been on the front foot and I didn’t see enough of that today.

“I’d rather lose 6-3 and attack the game, rather than surrender and give up possession and give up territory like we did today.

“(It’s) Really disappointing, especially being in charge of a game away from home: the error we’ve given away to get a man sent off has changed the game.”