Fylde 42 – Blaydon 24

Blaydon were well in contention for 60 minutes and when the home side went a man down the game was there for the taking. Inexplicably they then went off the boil, being frequently turned over in the loose and spilling possession, and allowing the home side to run in 3 late tries.

Fylde won the try scoring contest by 6 to 3 and more significantly their fly-half Colin Johnson had a 100% conversion record in difficult windy conditions whilst the visitors had a nil return from their efforts. Blaydon fly-half Craig Willis was however responsible for 19 of his sides points with 2 tries and 3 penalties.

An early Willis penalty was soon cancelled out by Fylde open-side flanker Rob Stewart who touched down when Blaydon lost possession but the visitors hit back in style with 2 quick tries.
Willis crossed in the corner after good progress by the forwards from a line-out and 3 minutes later dummied his way through for a repeat effort to make it 7-13.

Right on the interval a fortuitous bounce gifted a score to Fylde No8 David Fairborough to give then a single point lead at the break which was extended soon after the restart when centre Chris Briers skipped clear down the blindside.

A brace of penalties from Willis brought it back to 21-19 at which point Dan Vernon the Fylde flanker was red-carded for a tip tackle and Blaydon were back in the driving seat.

Sadly it all went wrong as concentration dipped and the Lancashire side took full advantage to run in further scores through Warren Stagg, Johnson and Oli Bernard, all of course converted.
A late consolation was achieved when Gavin Jones went over from a catch and drive but the damage had been done in a disastrous 20 minutes.

John Brennan