The Coasters maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a 0-0 draw at home to Harrogate Town, moving them up to 3rd in the table.
Dave Challinors side remained unchanged from Saturdays draw away to Sutton United as both sides entered the game unbeaten. There were chances for both sides as each goalkeeper made sensational saves to keep the scores level in front on the BT Sports cameras.
The game started relatively slow with both teams finding each other out. It wasn’t until the 18th minute that the games first chance arrived, a drilled corner kick from Cardle was cleared straight to Croasdale who shot over the bar.
Minutes later Harrogate also had their first effort following a 25-yard low strike from George Thomson whose shot was saved comfortably by Jay Lynch.
As the half came to an end there were brilliant chances at either end. The lively Dominic Knowles found himself in space six yards out, but his effort was denied by a heroic block from Francis-Angol, the ball came back to him and his second effort just went wide of the top left corner.
It was Fylde’s chance next to attack as Joe Cardle who had switched from his familiar left wing to the right cut in on his left and found his strike deflected for a corner. The resulting corner provided Fylde with the best chance of the half. Neil Byrne was brought down in what looked like a certain penalty only for the ball to fall to Irishman Danny Kane whose shot was blocked on the line.
Fylde continued to push for the breakthrough, a Rowe deflected shot looked destined for goal only to be blocked by Harrogate resilient defence, the resulting corner was cleared and set Harrogate on the counter, George Thomson ran down the wing, whipping in a ball to find Dominic Knowles who found himself one on one with Lynch who superbly denied Harrogate a certain 1-0 lead.
Following an injury, Joe Cardle was replaced by Serhat Tasdemir at the break. He caused an instant impact as he picked out James Hardy in the box, his left foot effort destined for the top corner was stopped by a brilliant save from Town keeper James Belshaw.
With the game becoming increasingly wide-open Harrogate’s Kelvin Langmead had his effort deflected onto the woodwork.
With Harrogate pressing for the opening goal Referee Andrew Miller was faced with a big decision to make as Lynch picked the ball up outside his area, thankfully for the Coasters the card was only yellow.
Fylde continued to push forward but seemed to struggle to in the final third as multiple shots were blocked by Harrogate defence. Jim Kellerman made way for Gime Toure as Dave Challinor went in search of all three points. Toure caused havoc from the off as he utilised his lightning pace down the right only be brought down by Kelvin Langmead. Croasdale whipped in the free-kick directly into the path of leading scorer Danny Rowe, he made a clear connection but was somehow denied by Belshaw.
Harrogate ended the game the better side with numerous half chances which were well dealt with by the Fylde defence. The last chance of the game came to the Town as Lloyd Kerry’s cross was amazingly missed by everyone and shielded out for a goal kick.
Harrogate Town: Belshaw, Burrell, Kitching, Falkingham (Agnew 73), Howe, Langmead, Thomson (Beck 67), Kerry, Knowles (Williams 89), Muldoon, Leesley
Subs not used: Parker, Cracknell
AFC Fylde: Lynch, Francis-Angol, Byrne, Bond, Hardy (Hemmings 90), Croasdale, Rowe, Cardle (Tasdemir 45), Burke, Kane, Kellermann (Toure 71)
Subs not used: Tunnicliffe, Birch
Attendance: 1,709