AFC Fylde 0 – 0 Chorley

Att: 2,443

The Coasters couldn’t find a way past neighbours Chorley, in a tightly contested and often feisty affair at Mill Farm.

The first chance of the encounter came to Danny Rowe, confident after getting off of the mark at the weekend – but this time he couldn’t steer Mark Yeates’ searching ball home, heading just wide.

Both sides looked to find openings in the game, with Chorley looking to step up and hit the Coasters quickly, with Carver and Holdroyd leading the line.

Burke, who enjoyed an energetic season opener at Aldershot, looked lively once again, combining well with Dan Bradley to bomb on and cause problems.

Chorley’s first real effort came when Meppen-Walters stood up to strike a free-kick fully thirty yards from goal.

His effort was direct and powerful, and gave Montgomery a bit to do in the goal, palming it to safety, before recovering well to clear the danger.

Montgomery was called into action again soon after, after an awkward shot from Adam Blakeman almost caught him unawares.

The Chorley defender lost his footing, skidding and improvising a lobbed effort goalwards, which the Fylde keeper had to back-pedal to clear.

The Coasters came right back into it though, with Duxbury driving on to send a fantastic ball into the box, but neither Bradley or Willoughby were positioned well enough to rise to it on this occasion.

Two of the new Fylde recruits combined with the half-hour mark approaching, as Scott Duxbury’s defence-splitting ball sent Kurt Willoughby on his way.

Willoughby did well to latch onto it, and sized himself up to try to bend it into the bottom right corner, but wrapped it agonisingly wide of Anyon’s goal.

Second Half

The Coasters were forced into an early change, when defender, and captain on the night, Neill Byrne, withdrew with a suspected injury.

Kyle Jameson came on to make his competitive debut for the Coasters, settling in alongside Alex Whitmore in central defence.

With swirling winds now affecting play at Mill Farm, chances started to drop as a result – Dan Bradley pouncing on Mark Yeates’ whipped free-kick, sending it just wide of the post.

The substitute Jameson found himself at the centre of the game’s first real big refereeing decision, as the linesman flagged down a challenge on Elliot Newby.

The tackle seemed to be clean enough, but the strong nature of it wasn’t to the officials’ liking, and Jameson was shown a yellow card.

The game opened up after this, with both sides looking to find the winner under the lights – Teague heading wide from a corner moments after Rowe tried to fashion an effort on the Chorley goal.

A double substitution of Haughton and Philliskirk was Dave Challinor’s final throw of the dice, with the duo introduced with little over ten minutes on the clock.

Chorley themselves had made changed, with recent signing Massanka from Burnley bought on, stretching Fylde on the counter attack.

Dodds perhaps went as close as anyone for Chorley, after a cleared corner landed at his feet, but his rifled effort flew just wide of Montgomery’s post.

Haughton had the game’s last goalscoring chance, but his scuffed effort didn’t trouble Anyon, and The Magpies took a deserved point away from Mill Farm.

Teams

AFC Fylde: Montgomery, Burke ( Philliskirk 78’), Byrne (Jameson 49’), Whitmore, Bradley (Haughton 78’), Duxbury, Craigen, Croasdale, Yeates, Willoughby, Rowe.

Subs: Jameson, Kosylo, Philliskirk, Williams, Haughton.

Chorley: Anyon, Challoner, Blakeman, Baines, Teague (C), Meppen-Walters (Ross 63), A.Newby, O’Keefe, Carver, E.Newby, Holroyd (Masuanka 70’)

Subs: Cottrell, Dodds. Ross, Hooper.