Blaydon 24 – Fylde 28

In a ding-dong battle from the start to the finish Blaydon were finally undone by some crucial errors and the brilliance of Fylde winger Oliver Brennand who scored all 4 tries for the visitors.

Blaydon held the lead 4 times, ahead by 24-14 in the 57th minute, but Fylde were never out of it and in the closing minutes looked more and more likely to secure a first win in 8 visits to Crow Trees.

“We could have won” said director of rugby Micky Ward “but whether we should have won is another story. If you make silly errors against a team who are hot in attack they will punish you”.

Blaydon took a 5th minute lead when Gavin Jones touched down from a tried and trusted driving line-out only to see Brennand scoot in for the first of his sniping scores. Back they came however and when another rolling maul was heading for the line Fylde pulled it down to concede a penalty try and Blaydon took a 12-7 lead into the break.

Brennand escaped for second time in the 42nd minute but once more Blaydon regained the advantage through Nathan Bailey who hacked on from half-way and won a remarkable chase to the line.

At this stage it was end to end stuff and home skipper Keith Laughlin prevented a certain try with a brilliant last ditch tackle, resulting in a short scrum. Blaydon then not only took the scrum against the head but after 2 quick passes Tom Penny was away from his own 22. The centre swerved past 2 would be tacklers to race clear for the try of the game and a second conversion for Andrew Baggett, that put Blaydon 10 points in front with 23 minutes remaining.

But Fylde were far from being done however and when Brennand intercepted on half-way for number 3 and then finished off a cross-field move in the closing minutes an away win was just about deserved, Chris Johnson landing his 4th conversion.

John Brennan