Fylde RFC 45 Lymm 17: Victory a fitting way to celebrate coaches' milestone

After three defeats on the bounce, Fylde saw off a Lymm team who had destroyed them earlier in the season.

Although Lymm had all the early momentum, poor decisions left them pointless after 10 minutes and it was Fylde who took an early lead.

Freddie Reader found space on halfway before selling a dummy to skip past two defenders and touch down for a try, converted by loanee fly-half Will Hunt.

Lymm spurned further chances and Fylde punished them again on the 25-minute mark, initially through Hunt’s penalty, before another kick caused chaos.

A knock-on saw Lymm’s defensive line broken once again, the ball spilling loose for Reader to score his second try and put Fylde 15-0 ahead.

Things took a turn when Mike Walton was sinbinned for a late challenge, only for Lymm to miss a penalty directly under the posts.

Despite that miss, they were back five minutes later and finally got on the board when a dominant scrum ended with Joe Senior diving over in the corner and Sam Wadsworth converting.

Lymm’s Jack Stride was also sinbinned in the first half, which ended with Fylde leading 15-7.

Fylde started the second half strongly, with Hunt kicking penalties in the 45th and 50th minutes.

However, between those six points, another seven went astray after a line break and kick chase ended with the ball agonisingly fumbled inside the Lymm goal area.

A try would come a few moments later when Lymm failed to take the ball to ground, instead throwing the ball further and further back.

It was eventually stolen by Adam Lanigan, who flew away into the right-hand corner for a try which extended Fylde’s lead to 19 points at 26-7.

Ten minutes later, as Lymm once again struggled with their handling, a touch ensured Ben Turner was onside and he raced into the corner.

Hunt, whose infield kicking had been excellent all game, then landed a fine conversion.

Although the game was drifting away from Lymm, they managed to get some joy when a classier passing phase – much closer to the quality they have shown this season – ended with Wadsworth scoring in the corner.

Nevertheless, a superb second-half performance from Fylde saw them able to kill off the game with 10 minutes to play.

Some neat passing play found Lanigan on the left-hand side of the 22 for a nice score.

Hunt was unable to add the conversion but the extras weren’t required as they led 38-12.

With the game having already been decided, that didn’t stop the last two minutes from being frantic with plenty of action.

It started when Reader completed his hat-trick with a try that was a carbon copy of the one that was spilled earlier on.

Lymm then concluded the scoring a minute later as Tom Manaton touched down to salvage some pride for the visitors following a tough afternoon.

Fylde RFC: Reader, Turner, Clayton, Stott (Forster), Lanigan, Hunt, Kincart; Rudkin, Parker (Williamson), Trippier (King), Walton (Morgan), Garrod, Quinn (Dorrington), Harrison, Fairbrother.

Lymm: Wadsworth, Senior, Stride, Wilson, Reay, Shard (Simpson), Morris; Higgins (Yates), Makin, Hunter (Woods/Higgins), Tahraoui, Yates (Pitcher), Kermode, Callander (Hill), Lilly.