AFC Fylde centre-half Simon Grand believes his side need to take responsibility after the 2-1 defeat at Sutton United at the weekend.

The Coasters conceded twice with the space of one first-half minute against their high-flying hosts before seeing Lewis Montrose dismissed midway through the second-half.

Grand inadvertently turned the ball into his own goal to double Sutton’s lead before redeeming himself with a late goal and insists his side must cut out their defensive ‘naivety’. 

Grand said: “It’s followed suit from most of the season really. We can be too naive defensively. I switched off for the first goal and their lad has gone clean through and scored.

“The second one came straight from kick-off and similar things have happened too many times this season, whether it be straight after we have scored or conceded or late on in halves. It’s that naivety that we need to get rid of quickly. We need to get that out of our game. 

“I think the lads need to take responsibility for themselves. We had more than enough experience out their to prevent things like that happening. 

“We had a couple of chances after we had scored and we put the pressure on. It’s frustrating that we had to go behind and get a man sent off before we started to apply that pressure. We should be doing that from the start and that is the disappointing factor. 

“We could have got something in the end but to be honest we didn’t deserve to.”