James Rowe wants clean bill of health after sickness bug at AFC Fylde

Illness forced defender Jamie Stott off early during last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at Gloucester City, with forwards Nick Haughton and Tom Walker also affected.

Rowe hopes to have all three available for tomorrow’s hope game against Farsley Celtic, though all three only completed their first training session of the week yesterday.

The manager had been relishing his first full week at the Mill Farm training ground after walking straight into a block of five games in 15 days, which greatly restricted the work he could do between matches.

The first four of those games yielded 10 points before Rowe suffered his first setback at his former club Gloucester, where a game of few clear-cut chances was settled by Lucas Tomlinson’s fourth-minute strike.

Rowe told The Gazette: “We had a bit of illness for the Gloucester game and Jamie had to come off in the first half.

"It was a bug that went round and hit Nick and Tom after the game, so those three have not had a full week’s training.”

Asked if the rigorous schedule had perhaps taken its toll at Gloucester, Rowe responded: “Well, if you look at the physical side we didn’t hit our levels, especially in the first half, but you have to give credit to the opposition.

"They did start brighter and we made life difficult for ourselves by conceding early.

"I don’t we deserved to lose but we didn’t do enough to win either. We hit the woodwork but didn’t create enough chances.

"But you will get setbacks and it’s all about how you respond to them.”

Two successive Saturday fixtures at home for Fylde start with tomorrow’s visit of Farsley Celtic.

Farsley are second-bottom of National League North but are only one point from safety. They have taken eight points from their last four games and defeated Fylde in West Yorkshire in October.

One Fylde player looking to make more of an impact is Douglas Taylor, the striker signed on loan from Stoke City for the rest of the season who came on for his debut just before the hour mark at Gloucester.

A prolific scorer for the Potters’ Under-23s, the 20-year-old said: “I was very happy to make my debut and to felt welcome straight away but it was a disappointing result.

"I could have given more going forward, I think. The manager wants me to stretch the play a bit more and there's definitely stuff to work on for the next game.

“My effort was 100 per cent there. But the manager wants me to run in behind more.

"I could definitely have done that more in hindsight because they played a high line and a couple of times I got caught offside.

"But I know what to do and I think we can do better as a team next game definitely.”

Rowe said of his third signing for the Coasters: “Douglas brings freshness and good energy. He did get in behind but we’re looking for him to do that more.

"He’s a player I’ve tracked and hopefully he can hit the ground running. He may get his first start against Farsley.”

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