Fylde RFC boss is glad of a week off after Caldy defeat

National Two North’s unbeaten runaway leaders Caldy completed the double over second-placed Fylde, emerging 15-7 victors as howling winds and driving rain battered the Woodlands.

Spragg’s charges emerged pretty much unscathed despite initial fears that number eight David Fairbrother had broken his jaw when he left the field for a spell in the first half.

Spragg told The Gazette: “We have no more than the usual bumps and bruises you would expect from such a physical match in those conditions.

“Fairy took a knock to the chin in the first half and we thought he’d broken his jaw. He was stitched up and has since had it checked out, and it’s nothing too serious.”

Tomorrow is the first of two designated dates for teams to catch up on postponed fixtures and for Fylde, who haven’t seen a game called off all season, it’s a most welcome day off.

They have played every Saturday since the start of September bar the Christmas break on December 28.

Spragg added: “I’m happy we have the break. We had just the one training session this week, when we reviewed the performance against Caldy and looked at what we could have done better.

“Now we can look forward to going to Loughborough a week on Saturday and playing on their 3G pitch. We have gone well on those surfaces because we can play at speed and that really suits us.”

Fylde have suffered back-to-back home defeats but scored 115 points in winning their last two on the road.

Sixty-four of those were scored on the artificial surface at Stourbridge, Fylde’s biggest points tally for nine years.

Last Saturday’s defeat by Caldy opened up a 21-point gap between the division’s top two clubs and Spragg had no complaints.

He reflected: “They probably deserved it purely because they made fewer mistakes than us in the difficult conditions.

“We missed a tackle for one of their tries and had the ball turned over for another, while we didn’t make the most of our own opportunities.

“We were a little bit off in our skills but I couldn’t be more proud of the effort.”

Fylde had the elements in their favour in the first half but failed to get on the scoreboard before giving themselves a fighting chance in the second period when Jacob Conner’s try moved them back within five points.

Spragg said: “In the first half we made some decisions to try to play when we could have kicked long with the wind and forced them to play out from deep in their half.

“We were in the ascendancy when we got it to 12-7 and we were on top for five or six minutes, but then we gave a silly penalty away, which enabled them to go two scores ahead.

“That meant they could play conservatively and it forced us to try and play against a very strong wind.”

Fylde can now recharge the batteries for their final seven games, with the challenge of consolidating second spot and so earning a promotion play-off against the runners-up from National Two South.

Hinckley, the other visiting side to win at the Woodlands this month, are now Fylde’s closest challengers, six points behind after winning their last eight games. They too can put their feet up tomorrow.

Both clubs could be overtaken by Sedgley Park should they win their two games in hand, though the first of those is against Caldy tomorrow.