Dagenham and Redbridge v AFC Fylde: Coasters must build on clean-sheet platform says boss Bentley

Bentley’s side remains inside the bottom four in the National League, 10 points adrift of Chesterfield who beat Chorley at the weekend.

However, Bentley says Fylde’s clean sheet, their first in the league since December 10, is a positive foundation to take into tonight’s trip to Dagenham and Redbridge.

“We’re away from home now on Tuesday but hopefully we have broken the cycle because we’ve got a clean sheet, we’ve got a point and now we have to try and make it three at Dagenham,” he said.

“A lot of the conditions and elements are dictating how we play at the minute but the lads have given it their all, which is what they’ve done since we’ve come to the club – so we can’t really complain about that.

“If I’m looking at the positive side of things, we’ve kept a clean sheet and that’s been a long time coming for us.

“When I came to the club we had seven clean sheets from our first 10 games, we’ve got another one now and hopefully that gives us a bit of confidence and a bit of momentum into this week coming.

“There’s plenty of football to be played and opportunities to get points on the board, but it’s baffling, it’s frustrating to see where we are.

“We’re coming against top sides and we could easily beat them rather than lose them.

“It’s important we don’t lose games of football, but at the moment, it’s a case of rolling our sleeves up, competing and trying to grind out results.

“We just need to stick in there, stick together and keep the morale high.”

Fylde’s draw against Solihull brought an end to another disappointing week for the Mill Farm outfit.

The Coasters were knocked out of the FA Trophy by Harrogate Town before being beaten 2-1 by Notts County in the league in midweek.

Fylde gave a good account of themselves on both occasions but they were left empty handed in both games.

“Neal Ardley (Notts County manager) said it was the best win they had this season because we could have been out of sight,” Bentley added.

“We had big chances, we had opportunities but we switched off for two goals and that seems to be the major issue at the moment.

“You can defend 99 times out of 100 but the one time you switch off, usually we’re getting punished. That’s the type of thing that can happen when you’re down there.

“The confidence we can take from it is that we were hard-working, we were competitive, we created opportunities.

“The cup game the other day was a lottery, it could have gone either way. It was the same against Solihull on Saturday.

“We could have easily won three games in a week yet we could have easily lost all three games in the week. Our points return from the two league games certainly weren’t what we were wanting.”

The Coasters now make the long trip down to London tonight to take on a Dagenham side that sit 18th, 11 points ahead of them.

Despite struggling at the wrong end of the table, Dagenham have managed to win three of their last six games.

“It’s away from home, but we’ll prepare like we always do and we’ll be positive,” Bentley said.

“It’s always a difficult place to go but we have to embrace the challenge and try and get a victory that will kick us on for the final stretch.

“It’s another big week for us, but another one we will embrace as we always do as we try and get some points on the board.”