AFC Fylde made it three wins from three in the National League North as they stormed to a 4-1 victory at Edgar Street on Saturday.
Nick Haughton’s first-half brace set The Coasters on their way, despite a slow start to proceedings, before Joe Piggott and Stephen Dobbie added second-half goals to send the loyal Fylde following home happy.
Jim Bentley made two changes to the starting XI that beat Boston United last Saturday, bringing David Perkins and Jacob Holland-Wilkinson in for the injured Danny Philliskirk and Sam Osborne, who dropped to the bench. Jack Sampson was left out of the match day squad due to illness.
Josh Gowling’s men came flying out of the traps, with Ryan McLean crashing a shot off the crossbar after one minute played.
The opening goal of the game arrived moments later, when Nick Haughton caught the keeper out with a clever free-kick from 40-yards out, much to the surprise of everybody inside Edgar Street.
Haughton was at it again five minutes later, when he tried his luck from range, but it was much too high to test the Bulls stopper Brandon Hall on this occasion.
Debutant Jacob Holland-Wilkinson almost capped his first start with a goal on 22 minutes. The young Preston North End loanee found some room in the penalty area, touched it inside onto his left foot and struck an effort off the post.
The Coasters extended their lead a minute before half-time, and it was Haughton again. Netting his fifth goal in three games, the number 10 dispossessed Mitch Hancox 30-yards out from goal and chipped the ball over Hall after driving into the penalty area.
HT: Hereford 0-2 AFC Fylde
Joe Piggott bagged his first goal for AFC Fylde three minutes after the half-time interval and extended his side’s advantage to three goals. After some good patient Coasters play, Piggott reacted fastest and, on the turn, hammered home from eight yards.
The hosts grabbed a lifeline with just over ten minutes to play. Miles Storey’s powerful run and strike beat Chris Neal and gave the home fans some hope.
That hope was to be short-lived though, as Fylde regained their three-goal cushion sixty seconds later. Stephen Dobbie, who was brought on in place of Nick Haughton on the hour mark, capitalised on an error in the Bulls defence and calmly slotted past Hall.
To put the icing on top of a fine start to the Bank Holiday weekend, academy graduate Harvey Gregson was brought on in the 87th minute to make his professional debut, and help The Coasters secure three impressive points.
FT: Hereford 1-4 AFC Fylde
AFC Fylde: Neal, Burke, Whitmore, Stott, Conlan, Perkins, Joyce, Holland-Wilkinson (Osborne 80’), Haughton (Dobbie 72’), Tollitt, Piggott (Gregson 87’).
Subs Not Used: B.Jones, Nolan.
Hereford FC: Hall, Hodgkiss, Haines (Forsyth 78’), Hancox, Mclean (Ismail 82’) Owen-Evans (Kouhyar 54’), Storey, Lloyd, Pollock, Vincent, Smith
Subs Not Used: Fini, Klukowski.
