Coasters' striker has 30-goal mark in his sights

Fylde are two points off the play-offs going into Saturday’s clash with Hartlepool at Mill Farm.

And they go into the National League clash on a high after a 7-1 thrashing of Aldershot last time out.

Sam Finley scored a double in that game and will now not be available for the next three games, having being controversially sent off for celebrating his second.

But hot-shot Rowe, who made it 22 in the league and 28 in all competitions with a hat-trick in that game is 
raring to go.

And Challinor hopes he lifts the golden boot for the division, but does so having fired Fylde into the play-offs with nine games to go.

Speaking of Rowe’s chances of finishing top scorer, he said: “You’d hope so, he is five clear now, from my perspective I just hope he keeps scoring goals between now and the end of the season.

“For me it does not matter how he gets them, I’m sure he’s got his own personal milestones that he’d like to get past. I think 28 in all competitions, I think he’d like to get to 30.

“We’ve got nine games to go and I’m sure he will be targeting 30 league goals which would be a great achievement.”

Though Challinor knows goals do not always guarantee success, with his side the top scorers in the division but two points off the top seven.

He said: “It is a strange one, we looked at goals scored over the past six or seven years that have got teams in the play-offs, this year probably a bit of a lower total than most other years.

“We are the top scorers in the league, it does not always guarantee you success and only through experience three seasons ago we scored the most, conceded the least and still did not get promoted.”

While Fylde are battling at the top end of the division Hartlepool are battling off-the-pitch dramas and for their National League status.

He said: “Hartlepool will be another tough challenge, they play a different system to what we have played against recently.”

In the National League North, Southport have signed Forest Green Rovers defender Alex Whittle on loan until the end of the season.

He will come into the reckoning for this weekend’s trip to York City as the Sandgrounders aim to make four wins on the spin.