AFC Fylde manager Dave Challinor admits leaving former Premier League star Stephen Crainey out of the side last time out against Corby Town was a difficult decision.

The Coasters make the short trip to face FC United of Manchester tomorrow as they look to make it three victories on the spin but Crainey may have settle for a place on bench.

Challinor said: “It’s a tough one because Crainz has done well and has been great for us around the dressing room. We made the decision to play Adam Sumner at left-back on Saturday, although Crainz ended up having to step in at centre-half because Tom Hannigan pulled out in the warm up. He did a great job and was as professional as ever as we have come to expect from him.

“We felt that Adam has been better equipped to deal with the pace of the opposition recently because we have been exploited at times.

“Crainz has taken that well and he knows how important he is to us, on and off the pitch. I know he will continue to do his job whenever called upon and he remains a very important member of the squad.”

Fylde have seen off Boston United and Corby Town over the past week and Challinor is keen to build on recent success.

“We have picked up six points in the last week which is great and we go into tomorrow’s game looking to add to that.

“There were some disappointing aspects from Tuesday night against Corby in the fact that we will now lose a couple of players to unnecessary suspensions and I’m not a big fan of that.

“If players get suspended through their own doing then they will pay for that because I won’t tolerate it. If need be the deadline for registering new players is the end of the month. Whether that’s registering young players or bringing in new players, we need to cover every eventuality at this stage of the season.

“But we needed to win the games and we are delighted to have done that. We were fantastic against Boston on Saturday and it was the best we have played for a long time.

“We still have 10 games to go and we have to keep picking up positive results and hope results elsewhere go our way.

“We have Sam Finley back from suspension for the match which is a plus, but we will have to see how Caspar Hughes is because he had to come off at half-time on Tuesday.

“It’s a great game to play in as a player. It will be a big crowd at Broadhurst Park, a fantastic atmosphere and a new stadium for us. We will enjoy it but from our perspective we have to go and win and we will be doing everything in our power to achieve that.

“Results are paramount now but I’m a big believer in that if you get your performance right then more often than not you’ll win football matches. You might have occasions where luck goes against you and you come away empty handed and we’ve certainly had that recently. The majority of the time if you perform well then results take care of themselves.

“That said, if we don’t play well tomorrow and come away with a 1-0 win then I would definitely take it!”