Dave Challinor could not hide his disappointment as AFC Fylde crashed out of the Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy to minnows Ashton Athletic.

A brace from Daniel Smith was the undoing of the Coasters and Challinor was disillusioned with his side’s display.  

“We sent the lads out there to make our selection for the weekend difficult and the simple fact is they didn’t do that,” said the manager.

“I’m very disappointed with the performance. To say it was lacklustre would be an understatement. We didn’t even produce a shot on goal in 90 minutes.

“If you look at the team that finished the game, potentially eight or nine of them think they should be in the first team. Well on that performance they’ve got no chance.

“You can’t just switch a winning mentality on and off and if they do that then they will find themselves watching an awful lot of football from the sidelines.

“We also picked up a couple of injuries too so were there any positives? If I’m brutally honest then no there weren’t.  

“We had more than enough on the pitch to win that game and that’s taking nothing away from Ashton. They worked hard and stopped us playing.

“Too many of our players went out there with the attitude that it would just happen and they didn’t need to try. We had no purpose and no end product.

“This competition was obviously not at the top of our list of priorities, but that’s no excuse. We simply weren’t good enough.”