AFC Fylde face a key weekend

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The Coasters are currently five points off the top seven but have a game in hand still to play.

Challinor’s men have a priceless chance to close the gap with two games in the space of four days, both against sides in the bottom half of the table.

Fylde welcome FC Halifax Town to Mill Farm this afternoon before making the trip to Barrow on Monday.

“We can’t do anything about last week’s defeat at Dagenham, it’s gone now,” Challinor told The Gazette. “It just means we’ve got one game less to pick up points.

“We now have an important weekend with two games in a short space of time.

“But we see it as a big opportunity to pick up good points, hopefully six points, to put us in a much stronger position.

“You would think after these two games there would be more clarity about the situation.

“We’ve got to make sure we take care of our business, look after ourselves and hopefully come end of play on Monday some nice surprises have gone in our favour.”

Challinor says his squad is in a good shape ahead of this weekend’s games, so he has the ability to change things up on Monday should Plan A not go to plan against Halifax today.

He added: “Normally over Easter you would be playing Saturday and Monday, so Friday-Monday in essence is a normal week as such.

“There’s no real difference so we’ll just take it game-by-game and see where we’re at after Friday.

“We’re fortunate we’re in a good place squad-wise in terms of numbers and in terms of fitness, so if we do need to make any changes following on from Friday, we’re in a position to do that.

“Sam Finley misses the game on Friday as he’s still suspended but that’s the last game and he then comes back into contention for the game on Monday.

“That’s another body to put back into the squad.”