Blaydon 1s end their losing run

Blaydon  34 – Fylde  17

Blaydon’s long awaited second win of the season finally arrived but only after they had been caught stone cold by visitors Fylde  who ran up a 14-0 lead after just 4 minutes.

Their winger Oli Brennand, a particular ‘bête noire’ for Blaydon after scoring 4 tries in the previous encounter, jinked past two ineffectual tackles in the 2nd minute and barely had the dust settled than the other winger scooted clear to send in Chris Johnson.

It was not looking good but Blaydon rallied, Connon put over a penalty, and then came an astonishing turn of events.

 A Blaydon rolling maul was heading for the line when Fylde pulled it down giving referee Jack Makepeace no alternative but to award a penalty try and issue a yellow card to offending No8 David Frairbrother.

10 minutes later at a Fylde scrum their flanker Mark Goodman was sent off for foul play and Blaydon went straight downfield to form another driving maul. Same result: Fylde pulled it down and a penalty try was awarded. 

The game was transformed, Fylde were never again seen as an attacking force and at the break it was 17-17 with Blaydon everything to play for.

Scrum-half Ruaridh Dawson got them in front for the first time when from a penalty to the corner Fylde infringed again and he took a quick tap and shot over near the posts.

One-way traffic ensued as Blaydon overpowered the opposition at scrums and maul after maul until something had to give –  Fylde pulled down one scrum too many and prop Simon Griffiths became a 3rd card victim for them.

At the next short scrum No8 Gavin Jones settled matters by breaking off and  diving over to grab the bonus point try, and put an end to Blaydon’s terrible run of bad results.

Connon added the conversion, as he had to the earlier tries, and put the icing on the cake with a penalty to end what had been a tumultuous game.

John Brennan