AFC Fylde boss Dave Challinor admits grinding out three points from the trip to Gainsborough Trinity at the weekend was crucial.

The Coasters secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the National League North strugglers to maintain their 11 point advantage at the top.

Challinor: “It wasn’t a vintage performance but when you come to places like this on difficult pitches, you do what you have to do. It’s been a tough week mentally so to come here and grind out a result is fantastic for us. It was all about getting three points.

“It wasn’t pretty by any stretch and do we want to play like we did today? No, we want to play good football but ultimately sometimes you have to adapt to win football matches.

“At this stage of the season performances aren’t critical but results are. I’d love us to play really well every week and get the ball down and move it but it’s not realistic.

“It was a really scrappy but functional performance. There wasn’t a great deal of quality from either side and the three goals can be put down to mistakes.

“One lapse in concentration gives them a penalty and suddenly it’s 1-1. Creating clear cut opportunities was difficult but we managed to get the winner and see the game out and I thought we did that well.”