Fylde 27 Chorley 11

I always seem to start a match report, with a little story that really has absolutely nothing to do with the game, I don’t actually mean to, it just happens. Well, this time both are related to this report and also the game itself, though both don’t involve the actual rugby game itself, will make sense shortly honestly. Well, story 1, we all say stupid things sometimes, well for me this was one of those times. We were warming up hitting the pads as we usually do seconds before kick-off, when I, for some ridiculous reason started shouting “come on lads best defence in the league”. Some would say, what’s wrong with that, you do have the best defence in the league. It’s actually maybe not too bad, if you are shouting it after the game when you’ve just either not conceded a try, but to do it in a warm is rugby suicide for me, I’m still cringing now. As you probably can guess, I will come back to that.

Number two was, as soon as I started taking notes for this report, my pen ran out, the spare one I had, also ran out and the one lily, my daughter had, ran out as well 10 minutes into the game, so all of this is from memory.

Fylde started really strongly and were constantly and quickly moving the ball looking to break down “the best defence in the league” LOL 

Ryan Berry took a quite blatant elbow to the throat after 7 minutes that saw him have to leave the field, at the time he could hardly breathe but thankfully he was ok but obviously could not carry on.  …20 minutes had passed, but still they had not bothered the scoreboard man. It was actually us who got him up off his feet first when for only the second time we had got into the Fylde third and won a penalty. on Form Ellery Hodson made it 0-3. If you can keep the score clicking every time you get in that last third despite the lack of possession, you give yourself a chance. Fylde though quickly began an avalanche of attack on our line coming away with two tries in ten minutes, which were both converted to make it 14-3. Two penalties then came in quick succession, one for Fylde and one for us to make it 17-6. One thing that was making a big difference was the Fylde scrum half, he was scooting from rucks through any small gap that was presented to him and was always giving quick ball to the backs and the mobile Fylde pack. At half time we had a very honest chat…….stop gifting the scrum half so much space, that stopped….we must organise quicker from our kicks, that got sorted and start being more ruthless which definitely happened. All these things have happened in every game this season, but sometimes you have bad games and sometimes a good performance from the opposition cause things to fall apart, the latter was definitely the case in this game, Fylde were playing very well. 

The second half saw us get a lot closer to our usual high standards of performance, with everyone increasing the intensity. Elbows though were beginning to again become unchallenged. Stu Hammond took an elbow to the forehead, minutes later Joe Laddle, then as Matt Lago ran the ball in to contact the was basically elbow charged square on the chin and was sent flat out on the pitch, yet again it wasn’t challenged or penalised by the referee. Ironically Fylde won a penalty 1 minute later for a high tackle, I just had to laugh unfortunately. The penalty made it 20-6, but we were playing better, starting to come into the game more and control our possession. With 20 minutes left we were down to 14 due to a yellow card, we had Matt Lago and Ryan Berry out (both elbows to the head) of the game and also Sam Hodkin who had injured his back. From a lineout we looked to catch and drive 10 metres out and Isaac O’Grady touched down to make it 20-11, the conversion was missed but we were back in the game with 12 minutes left. Two penalties in a row though were given to Fylde in our desperation to win the ball back with the second pushing them into our 1/3. We were now tiring after spending so much energy in defence, and as Fylde attacked off the line out, we were stretched massively and Fylde scored and converted to make it 27-11. Which now takes us back to our best defence in the league taunt at the warm up. As the Fylde players walked back to the halfway line, 4 or 5 of them were shouting at me “best defence in the league” and laughing at me, I had to smile. They were totally right to do it, I would have done exactly the same, my daughter found it hilarious.  With 1 minute left we were again down to 14 as Ellery Hodson was taken out with a stamp to the leg after he had cleared a kick, he was still laid on the floor as the players clapped each other off, again this remained unchallenged and not penalised.

Fylde though were the better team, and the number 9 and 10 controlled the game really well and the forwards constantly disrupted our lineout. We vastly improved in the second half despite being down to 14 players for 10 minutes and at one point 13. Stu Hammond, Matt Lago, Dom Anderson and Chris Highton worked really hard. Sam Hodkin and Rob Gatefield were kept so busy in defence and got through an unbelievable amount of work. Sean Livingstone was given the man of the match for us, it was greatly deserved as he put himself into everything and like the others gave everything in that second half.

This Saturday we are at home to Preston Grasshoppers, this will be played at Chorley Panthers due to this being a rearranged game.

Kick off is 14:15. Before the kick off we will be releasing balloons in memory of Nicola Singleton and Bryan Reed, during a minute’s applause.

Graham  Crane