AFC Fylde’s milestone man Danny Rowe believes ‘home comforts’ are the main reason for his fantastic goalscoring form.

The star striker racked up his 50th goal for the Coasters over the weekend – a feat made all the more impressive considering the 26-year-old reached the landmark in just 80 appearances.

Rowe moved up to fourth in the club’s all-time goalscorers chart with a belter in the 2-0 victory over Gainsborough Trinity on Saturday and admits he is loving life on the Fylde Coast.

“I’m really enjoying my football here,” said Rowe. “Before I joined the club I was living away a lot and was picking up a few injuries, but since joining things have really improved. I don’t think I’ve had one injury during my time here so far.

“I’m back living at home now and that has made a big difference. I’m playing regularly in a very good team and I get some good service. We like to get the ball down and play and that is far more enjoyable than other styles of football.

“For me personally to score 50 goals is great and I think I’ve done well.

“I don’t score many tap-ins, although I would like some! I would take a goal however it came. It just opened up for me on Saturday and I went near post. Perhaps the keeper should have saved it, I don’t know, but thankfully it went in so I’m delighted.

“It was a very good result for us. We played well, but I wouldn’t say it was our best performance of the season. It’s a difficult place to go and the pitch wasn’t great so it was a good day.

“Results elsewhere went our way at the weekend, but how other teams do is out of our hands and there is a long way to go yet. We can only concentrate on ourselves and I’m sure there will be lots of different and surprising results from now until the end of the season so we will just have to see how it goes.”

Coasters boss Dave Challinor was the first to congratulate Rowe on his half-century, but admits he almost let the hitman slip through his fingers 18 months ago.

“For Rowey to score 50 goals in such a short amount of time is a fantastic achievement,” said Challinor. “He has all the ability in the world, but as a footballer he needed to find a club where he was happy playing his football and he has certainly done that.

“He has come in and deserved a place in the team. The main striker in the formation we play is a very important and difficult job and he has been first class.

 “We originally brought him in for a friendly at the beginning of last season to have a look at him. He did okay, but we weren’t sure whether to take a chance on him.

“In fairness to him he came back and asked for another chance. We told him what we were looking for and what we expected from our players. He then played 25 minutes in another pre-season friendly against Bolton and looked a completely different player. We offered him a deal on the back of that and we haven’t looked back since.

“Rowey was fantastic last season and his goal record is unbelievable. He has kicked on again this year and he is very important to us. He has taken his opportunity here and thoroughly deserves everything he gets.

“Hopefully he continues to score as frequently as he has and this is the first milestone of many for him at the club.”