AFC Fylde manager Dave Challinor admits his side invited danger upon themselves yesterday in the 3-3 draw with Nantwich Town, but we pleased with his side’s character to fight back.

The Coasters found themselves three goals down against the Evo-Stik side but mounted an impressive late comeback in their third outing of pre-season.

“Where do I start with that one!” said Challinor. “Ultimately we showed good character to come back into the game which was pleasing. I thought we played okay in the first half, I just thought that we played too deep in terms of where we were passing the ball but we said to them at half time don’t get bogged down with trying to play all the time. It can be difficult when you have several lads that weren’t here last year.

“We want to play with a purpose and ultimately we play to create opportunities and create space. In order to do that you’ve got to have people getting in behind and in the first half everything was in front of them. Everything was probably 20, 30 yards deeper than what we wanted it. When you are playing on the edge of your box and make a mistake, you concede a goal every time.

“I think over the course of the game, that’s probably the only three real chances they’ve had and they’ve scored three goals. We then made the changes which were scheduled after an hour which gives not only fresh impetus but puts lads out there who know and understand how we want to play because they’ve been with us a while. All of a sudden we were on the front foot.

“The first goal changed it and we really were camped in the Nantwich half in the second half. We moved the ball well and created other opportunities that we could have stuck away.

“Now is the time when we really need to knuckle down and look forward to where we’re going to be in terms of the start of the season.

“We kick off in three weeks and we’re still a bit short of where we want the squad to be, especially in terms of the back four and goalkeeper situation. Hopefully we can rectify that situation within the week.”