Dagenham & Redbridge 4 AFC Fylde 0: Phillips' first league game in charge ends in defeat

A long-range strike from Christian Nguessan, a goalmouth scramble and two smart finishes from Junior Morias and Dylan Stephenson proved the difference as the Daggers ran out 4-0 winners at Victoria Road.

There was an early scare for the Coasters when Ben Winterbottom spilled a cross from the left, but the Brentford loanee did well to keep out the rebound effort from close range.

Fylde thought they had opened the scoring when Nick Haughton had the ball in the back of the net with a curling effort which Elliot Justham could only get a hand to, only for it to be ruled out for a foul against Tyler Roberts in the build-up.

With little under five minutes left of the first half, the hosts took the lead with a great strike from distance, Christian Nguessan picking out the top corner from 25 yards.

The Coasters did have an opportunity to level before the break when Roberts won a free-kick in a very dangerous position on the edge of the box. But Haughton’s effort was charged down.

The second half got off to the worst possible start for the Coasters as the hosts doubled their lead. The ball wasn’t cleared from a corner, and it was eventually scrambled home off Adam Long, leaving the Coasters with it all to do.

With all the momentum with the home side, Phillips made a triple change with Emeka Obi, Danny Ormerod and Jon Ustabasi all introduced.

As the Coasters looked to put some pressure on the Daggers, the hosts had another opportunity to make it three as sub Dion Pereira’s first involvement looked to be a one-on-one chance, but Corey Whelan raced back to produce a goal-saving tackle.

But with 15 minutes left, the hosts did make it three with Junior Morias taking full advantage of a mistake in the Coasters defence to tap home into an empty net.

There was time for the home side to add a fourth as Dylan Stephenson was slipped in behind the defence and slotted home.

The Coasters next face a trip to Boston United on Wednesday night.