Fylde look to be in seventh heaven with a win against Wharfedale

Having claimed bonus-point wins in their opening six matches of the National Two North season, Fylde’s bid for a seventh comes against Wharfedale on Saturday (3pm).

The teams go into the game on the back of contrasting results last time out, Fylde having won 41-16 at Rotherham as Wharfedale went down 29-22 against Tynedale.

“We’re still early in the season and things are still working themselves out,” said the joint head coach.

“We’re still seeing who is showing up well and who is picking up points but every week has been a tough game for different reasons.

“We’ve just come off the back of a really good win but Wharfedale are going to be a test of our character in terms of how we can back up a massive result at Rotherham.

“Wharfedale are a quality team. We’ve seen plenty of them on video but, although they lost at the weekend, we’re still going to have to be at our best.”

Five tries to one maintained Fylde’s average of 41 points a game in the opening quarter of the campaign.

Two of them came by way of perfectly-judged grubber kicks with Connor Wilkinson and Sam Stott the beneficiaries.

Loney admitted that was a result of players thinking for themselves in the heat of the moment, rather than sticking to any pre-determined tactics.

That freedom of expression has been encouraged with the Woodlands coaching staff aiming to avoid becoming overly reliant on certain aspects of their game.

“Basically, I think they just saw the opportunity and did it,” Loney said of their kicking success.

“There isn’t one facet of our game that we don’t want to execute; we scored out wide, there were a couple of kicks, we went over from an offload.

“We try to have different threats across the pitch rather than becoming too one-dimensional.

“The boys have the freedom to go out and do that but there’s also a fine balance to it.

“It was a really good win though. Rotherham, by their own admission, want to get out of the league and want to do well.

“Our boys were focused but confident at the same time against a really tough team and at a place where I think we haven’t done well before.

“All in all, we were really happy with it and it was another win to keep our run going.”

Fylde presently sit two points ahead of Sedgley Park at the top of the table.

It is the club’s best start to the season since bonus points were introduced in 2000, though Loney said he had been unaware of that statistic.

He added: “It’s only when you make a good start to the season that you find out about these things.

“I didn’t know this was our best start to the season until someone mentioned it.

“It wasn’t something we were aware of and it wasn’t something that was talked about in the build-up.”