Fylde RFC geared up for some close encounters this season
Team boss Alex Loney says Fylde RFC are confident and excited for the National Two North season which begins this Saturday – though he’s expecting another tight competition that could be too close to call.
Tomorrow’s Woodlands clash with Hull Ionians (3pm) is the first of three home games on the first four weekends and time will tell whether that works to Fylde’s advantage.
Joint-head coach Loney told The Gazette: “We’ve done blocks of good work over the summer.
“We were happy with the two pre-season performances, we used a lot of players and have pretty much a clean bill of health.
“There’s a lot of excitement around the club and the whole league.
“You just want to make a positive start, build pressure in games and gather some points.
“We’ll be challenged every week and we’ll have to fight in some tight games and hope to come out on the right side of them.
“Last season we got on good runs and confidence grew, but then we had some sticky patches. This season we’ll be looking to improve and not get on bad runs.
“It will be tough and I expect this league to be really tight. A lot of teams have brought in players in big volumes.”
Fylde had a highly competitive squad last season, which hasn’t altered greatly, and Loney is hoping that will stand them in good stead.
“We’ve had a really high retention rate,” he added. “Lots of players have stayed and are starting to rack up appearances over a number of seasons.
“We’ve tried to be really focused on adding quality and we’ve achieved that.
“We also value the young players we have coming through, who are snapping at the heels of the more established players.”
The latest new arrival at the Woodlands is versatile back Danny Cassidy.
A graduate of several top amateur rugby league clubs in Wigan, he is the nephew of former England forward Mick Cassidy.
He has also learned the 15-a-side code under former Fylde hooker Martin Scott at Wigan RUFC.
Loney said: “Danny is a very talented player. We’ve been aware of him for a while and this is a good time to hook up with him.
“He’s been with us for the second half of pre-season, he played in the friendly at Blackburn and has shown some touches to get us really excited.”
Of the three teams who finished above Fylde last season, only runners-up Sheffield are still in the competition this time around but Loney feels that the challenge will be every bit as tough.
“Sheffield have retained most of their players and added quality,” he said.
“Darlington Mowden Park (down from National One) are the real unknowns. They have done really well to get together a squad with good background.
“If you look at last season’s middle group, it was really competitive and there will be clubs looking to make strides forward, so you can easily get dragged down towards the wrong end of the table.”