Jim Bentley wants AFC Fylde to return to winning ways against Sutton United

AFC Fylde manager Jim BentleyAFC Fylde manager Jim Bentley
AFC Fylde manager Jim Bentley

Struggling Sutton United, who occupy the final spot in the National League bottom four, are the visitors.

It could prove to be a pivotal clash for the Coasters, who are only one point ahead of Sutton in the league table.

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It comes after Jim Bentley’s men ended a run of three straight wins with a last-gasp 2-1 defeat at Barnet last weekend.

“I’m gutted about the goal and the manner in which it came and the timing of it after dragging ourselves back into the game,” Bentley said.

“We’ve got to take it on the chin, it’s disappointing but the players have been superb for me so far.

“We’ve been in good form and we’re not going to win every week. Sometimes we’re going to lose and we’ve lost against a good Barnet side.

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“The good thing for me is that we have Tuesday night to bounce back so that’s what we’ll look to do. We’ll try to get back to winning ways as soon as possible, put this behind us and move forward.”

Despite being well below par in Saturday’s televised encounter, Fylde thought they had done enough to snatch a point when Danny Rowe equalised with a free-kick on the hour mark.

But Simeon Akinola headed home Barnet’s late winner in the third minute of stoppage time to condemn the Coasters to their 10th league defeat of the season.

“It’s disappointing because overall, in the last three days of training, we’ve been absolutely excellent,” Bentley added. “But it wasn’t good enough from our standards of what we’ve been doing recently.

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“We’ve had to tweak the formation and change personnel, just to freshen it up, and I thought we did that when I made the double substitution.

“I brought Nick Haughton on and he won the free-kick leading up to the goal, and at that point, we started playing more like we could.

“We looked threatening, we created opportunities and we got into good areas. We got the goal and we were wanting to kick on and get the winner.

“We had one or two bits, but they defended well I have to say although we also defended well – from set-plays in particular.

“Ultimately we got let down with the last one right at the end, where we switch off, although it was a fantastic delivery.”