Fylde appoint former player as new coach

​The 35-year-old joins from fellow National League North side Curzon Ashton where he has spent the last five years as both player and coach before being appointed permanent manager in 2024.

As a player, Mahon was an Irish youth international who came through the ranks at fellow North West side Wigan Athletic.

A move into the non-league pyramid followed, with a three-year spell at Vauxhall Motors before spending seven years with Chester where he clocked up over 200 appearances.

Mahon has made over 400 appearances in total across the National League and National League North, including a spell with the Coasters in 2013 when the club was still at Kellamergh Park.

He joined Curzon in 2020, initially as a player before becoming interim manager over two spells and later landing the top job on a permanent basis.

The Irishman was in a player/coach role up until the end of last season, and made 27 National League North appearances whilst guiding the Nash to an impressive eighth-place finish, narrowly missing out on the play offs.

Speaking on his appointment, Mahon said: “I’m over the moon to be here. I’m really grateful to be given the opportunity and I’m looking forward to being a part of something special.

“There’s a lot of work to do but I’m really excited to be a part of this football club. It’s an exciting project and when you look around the place, you can see the potential AFC Fylde has."

“We’ll be looking in the next few weeks to build a squad, as well as a culture that can bring the positive times back to the club.”

AFC Fylde Chairman David Haythornthwaite added: “It’s been a long and thorough search to find Kevin Philips’ replacement and I think that reflects on the importance of the decision. We started with a list of around 10 people we thought would fit the bill. As a result of past mistakes, we had several non-negotiables which we were determined to stick to.

“The first was a requirement to live within 60 mins driving distance of Mill Farm. It was essential the new Head Coach immersed themselves into the club and community alike. To this end, they would have to move their families to the North West, preferably the Fylde Coast, and this ruled out several candidates at an early stage.

“The second was the brand of football we wanted to play, expansive, energetic, high press, possession-based football that gets the crowd on their feet. Several candidates told us or indicated that you couldn’t get out of the NLN playing that way, so they eliminated themselves.

“In the end it came down to three and Craig was the clear favourite based on his achievements at Curzon and both the way his teams played and achieved with a very limited budget.

“Craig shared our vision regarding on how we wanted to play and act, both on and off the field and the high standards we expect him to set.

“We now move to the next stage which is assembling a team to support him and several announcements on this front will be made next week.”