JACK IN THE BOX TURNS THE TABLES ON MAGPIES
SUPER SUB Jack Muldoon squeezed a late shot past the impressive Carl Pentney to give 10-man AFC Fylde all three points at York Road.
It looked likely that another three points would be bagged by the in-form Magpies when Harry Pritchard sent Jay Lynch the wrong way from the penalty spot on 43 minutes after Moses Emmanuel was bundled over in the box by George Edmundson.
But the tide turned in the second half thanks to Lewis Montrose’s opportunist strike from close range and Muldoon’s howitzer into the bottom corner with seven minutes to play.
The Magpies pressed at the death after Fylde’s Sam Finley was sent off for a second booking after a nastylooking challenge on James Mulley, but the Coasters held on.
The Magpies just about deserved their lead at the break, having dominated much of the play, with Emmanuel twice going close before his heels were clipped to present Pritchard with the chance to make it 1-0 from the spot.
However, Fylde boss Dave Challinor will have wondered which gods they’d angered when the visitors were denied three times in the 19th minute. First Danny Rowe’s long range effort cannoned off the underside of the bar before Pentney kept out Jonny Smith’s follow up and Finley was denied by Magpies’ captain Alan Massey on the goalline. Maidenhead should really have doubled their advantage after the break , only to then allow Fylde back into the contest. Zaire Francis-Angol’s last-ditch challenge deflected Emmanuel’s effort out for a corner on 49 minutes before the visitors levelled when Jordan Tunnicliffe’s header was brilliantly saved by Pentney, only for Montrose to bundle the ball in from close range. Harold Odametey almost finished off a lungcrunching run with a goal, but his shot sailed over the bar. And Fylde’s winner came seven minutes before the end when Muldoon skipped inside his marker and thumped the ball low and hard into the bottom corner. Lynch saved well from Christian Smith’s last-minute piledriver to deny a late Magpies rally, leaving Challinor relieved.
“We had to show a lot of character to come from behind,” the Coasters boss said.“Things haven’t been going our way recently, but the performances have been good, and today we got what we deserved.
“It was always going to be tough coming here. Their penalty was never a penalty. If we’d lost the game to that decision it would have been pretty galling.
“We used that as motivation and I thought we thoroughly deserved the win.