AFC Fylde boss Dave Challinor spoke to the AFC Fylde Media Team after Saturday’s 2-2 draw at home to Gainsborough Trinity.

A real game of two halves that ended up finishing 2-2. How would you assess the performance?

We’ve thrown the game away, it’s as simple as that. We’ve had total control in the first half and deserved the two goal lead but we were poor in the second half and its two points dropped from a winning position which is unacceptable. We haven’t done enough in the second half to warrant getting the win. We spoke at half-time and gave the players warnings about what the Gainsborough lads might do to get back into the game and our players didn’t take on board what we said, otherwise we’d have come out with three points instead of one. We have experienced lads in that dressing room who should be doing better to see the game out but we’ve let it slip today. Once they got two goals back, they dropped off and were happy to take a point, and we didn’t do enough then to get another goal and win the match which was disappointing.

The performance has dropped off in the second half of the last two games, is that something you need to work on before the Bradford Park Avenue game on Wednesday and the Lowestoft game on Saturday?

It’s difficult to say we’ll work on it because in my opinion it’s down to mentality. All we can do is warn the players of what might happen, it’s up to them to make sure it doesn’t happen. If we’re winning 2-0 at half time, the other side aren’t going to keep doing the same things as the first half and they are always going to change things, so it’s about dealing with change and we haven’t been able to do that today. We’ve got good enough players to be able to work out how teams are going to play and stop that, as well as doing well going forward, we just need to see games off. We gave them encouragement in the second half and we didn’t stamp our authority on the game at the start of the second half. Its cost us and we’ve thrown two points away.

On a positive note, two more goals for Dion Charles. Have you enjoyed his performances so far this season?

He’s been excellent from the start of pre-season up to now and we hope that continues. We told him to go away over the summer to get fit and bulk up a bit if he wanted a future here and he’s done that and fair play to him. We made a big decision in letting Michael Barnes go and we thought Dion could have greater potential to take us to the next level and he’s proving us right at the moment. The biggest thing with Dion is consistency, and once he gets that right, he’ll be a very good player. He probably needs to keep the ball better but that’ll come with experience and getting games under his belt.

AFC Fylde travel to Bradford Park Avenue tomorrow night, before we host Lowestoft Town at Kellamergh Park this coming Saturday.