Big chance for Fylde triallists

AFC Fylde manager Dave Challinor could field more new faces at Nantwich Town this afternoon as he continues to build his squad.
Simon Williams is an injury doubtSimon Williams is an injury doubt
Simon Williams is an injury doubt

Fylde are midway through their pre-season and impressed in a narrow defeat to League One side Rochdale on Tuesday.

The Coasters are now just three weeks from the start of the new National League North campaign and Challinor is keen to add at least four more names to his squad.

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The Coasters boss said: “It is very likely there will be a few new faces on show at Nantwich. We have had quite a few triallists in this week and we will continue to do so until we find the right players.

“We are still at least four players short of where we want to be, so we don’t take too much notice of results just yet.We have also had a couple of injuries which haven’t helped.

“We need to make a decision upon what kind of team we put out at Nantwich because we have a few little niggles and we won’t risk anyone carrying an injury.

“It doesn’t really matter who we are playing – it’s another chance to get minutes in legs.

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Challinor admits it has been difficult to do much specific work in training as his squad is still up in the air.

“We haven’t done too much work around attack and defence just yet. It has been more general fitness work up to now.

“We still need to get our squad sorted out before we can really start specific training work. Hopefully that will develop further over the next couple of weeks.

“As we get towards the end of the month we will start working on areas that are going to be important come the start of the season.

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“We have worked the lads very hard, trained every day and played games on top of that. The lads will have taken a lot from the game against Rochdale because it was played at high tempo and was difficult for us.

“We have to make sure that even though we are playing a team from a lower division, we keep the tempo up to the same standard and maintain our fitness. There are lads here trying to earn contracts and they need to keep working hard to impress.

Challinor is hoping to call upon two of his established midfielders for the first time for the trip to The Weaver Stadium – but could be missing a couple of key names.

“Hopefully Richie (Baker) and Andy (Bond) should be OK,” he said.

“They should play some part after recovering from injury.

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“It will be really good to see them feature for the first time and get some game time. It will be a boost to have two more players back to full fitness.

“Steve Williams has got a little bit of a calf problem and Sam Finley missed training on Thursday with a hamstring niggle, but he trained on Friday and we will have to see how they both are before we make a decision.”

DANIEL AGNEW