Head coach says AFC Fylde must make sure they don't get carried away

A 3-1 win at Curzon Ashton – the Coasters’ ninth consecutive away league victory – combined with the postponement of South Shields’ match against Peterborough Sports, saw Mahon’s players go a point clear at the summit.

Next up is Saturday’s home match with third-placed Merthyr Town, who are four points behind Fylde after winning their last eight league matches.

Speaking after last weekend’s win, Mahon told the Coasters’ media team: “It’s brilliant and all credit to the staff and to the players on the pitch, they have done brilliant so far this year.

“I don’t know if anybody expected us to do as well as we are. When we got our squad assembled, I knew we had something special but we’ve just got to stay humble.

“I say it all the time, there’s so many games to go. I think we’re only on 44 points – so six away from safety if we do our maths properly! – but we’ve got to make sure we stay humble, we set ourselves targets.

“Even getting to 50 points is a target, then it’s getting to 60. You have to be humble and you have to have set targets and set goals for the lads.

“We’re doing OK at the moment, we’ve got to make sure we keep working hard and we don’t get ahead of ourselves.

“I’m really happy but there’s still a long, long way to go.”

While Luca Thomas took centre stage at Curzon with two goals, Mahon was just as pleased to welcome back second-half substitute Chris Merrie after a month out.

Mahon added: “He’s an outstanding footballer, just a joy to watch.

“He just settles everything down, he does exactly what we need him to do so he’s brilliant to have.

“He’s not been able to play for the last five weeks, Ryan Colclough’s not been able to play, Danny Mayor’s not been able to play, Max (Taylor) has been out, Taelor O’Kane’s been out; we’ve had a string of good players that have been injured and for us to be able to keep picking up points has been really crucial.”