Challinor Relishing Trip To Former Club Tranmere

The 41-year-old, who was appointed as the Coasters' boss in 2011, will lead the National League North champions into their first ever season in Non-League's top flight.

With that will come a host of unfamiliar opposition sides, although one is especially well-known to Challinor - last season's play-off runners up Tranmere Rovers.

Challinor played 140 times for Rovers and the two fixtures against them happen to be Fylde's Christmas-New Year double-header!

"I’ve been back and watched games there and obviously that was where I started my career," he told the club's website.

"They were my team, I supported them and then went on to play for them so those fixtures were games that I was immediately going to get drawn towards.

"It’s great that we’ve got them on Boxing Day. I’d rather be twenty minutes away from the game rather than be an hour or two. For New Years, I think crowds are always boosted around that Christmas period.

"They will be brilliant games. They’re the favourite to win the league and I’ll be honest, I was as disappointed as anyone not to see them go up last season after reaching the play-off final.

I went to Wembley but to be able to play against them this year is great on a personal level and it will also be great for the players because Tranmere are a massive club at this level."

And on their inaugural fixture against Boreham Wood, Challinor added: "First and foremost, I think that you’re always drawn to who you’ve got in the opening game. It’s great to be at home first and then it’s nice to have Chester as the first away game as it’s the closest team to where I live.

“I think you get excited about every game. We’ve already marked some games as potential overnight stays and there’s a lot of organisation to be done and I just suppose it becomes more real as the fixtures are released. You can start to make more detailed plans."