AFC Fylde boss Dave Challinor spoke after yesterday’s game about his delight at completing the double over promotion hopefuls Barrow.
It was a great win today. Can you talk us through the game?
It was a tough game in tough conditions and I thought the best team won. It was two evenly matched sides and they’re where they are in the league on merit so I’m obviously delighted to come away on the right side of the result.
I was disappointed with us making it difficult for ourselves by conceding in the manner we did but I suppose from a neutral’s point of view it made a game of it. From our perspective we had to see the game out without being spectacular but despite that I’m delighted to win.
You mentioned the conditions weren’t perfect today so how pleased were you to see out of the game?
We knew it was going to be tough and we obviously had some decisions against us in the first half and I thought for 20 minutes we had to dig in, be resolute and be solid and we restricted them to very little. We then got a little bit of a foothold on the game, we passed the ball and played some decent stuff. But other than that we saw out the game, controlled the crowd and looked quite comfortable.
We got the early goal and were comfortable and we were able to go in at half time but you don’t want people switching off thinking the job’s done. We braved the elements in the first half and knew the second half will be just as tough and in fairness to them they played at a high tempo.
But we had two unbelievable chances on the break to secure the game but to get the second goal when we did was crucial and we were able to deal with everything that they threw at us.
How does it feel to do the double over one of your title rivals?
It is what is really. I think coming into the game on Boxing Day we were sat two points behind Barrow so it was an important game for us and I suppose from their perspective they have three games over Christmas, if they win all three they could be sat eight to ten points clear at the top.
That was something we mentioned before the game today as we’ve got ourselves in a good position and it was a bit of a free hit for us as we’re still in control of our own destiny whether we had won, drawn or lost today. It was great to win and it’s a massive result for us and it gives us a really positive mood as no one else has come here and won and it puts us in a great position.
But we now need to put our feet back on the ground, regroup and push on and get a good result against Lowestoft on Sunday.
You can listen to the full interview on the club’s AudioBoom channel.