Fylde RFC’s search for consistency and confidence going into the final five games
Fylde RFC are fully focused on ending the season as strongly as possible as they return to action at Darlington Mowden Park on Saturday (3pm), boosted by a most welcome return to winning ways.
A convincing 45-7 home win over Wharfedale in their latest National Two North fixture halted Fylde’s seven-game winless run – their worst sequence for eight years – and enabled the squad to enjoy last Saturday off in a positive frame of mind.
Joint-head coach Alex Loney told The Gazette: “It was pleasing to get a win for the first time in a little while.
“It was pretty comprehensive in the end and we gave the players a well-deserved week off from training, but now the focus is on the final five games.
“We’ve come out of a run we didn’t want and now we have a chance to win some games.
“The short-term mindset is to try to get a bit of consistency, get on a run and build some confidence.”
DMP, one of the three teams to have drawn at the Woodlands this season, may have had their confidence dented by back-to-back defeats after shipping 66 points at Preston Grasshoppers last time out.
Loney added: “That was a one-sided game and if you look at DMP’s form, they are not quite the team they were when we last played them.
“It will still be a very difficult game and, after a heavy defeat and a week off, you’d expect them to come out firing.
“They were very good when we played them (in November), with lots of threats, and it should be a cracker.”
Another target for the remaining weeks of the campaign is to climb from sixth place, with DMP perhaps the one club Fylde can realistically hope to overtake.
“If we can get some wins, the table will take care of itself and we might sneak up a position or two,” said Loney
“The way we’ve played since Christmas has not changed drastically but we have dropped points.
“With a better run we could have been pushing to finish towards the top behind Sheffield.”
Unbeaten Sheffield may be taking the fun out of the title ‘race’, though the return of play-offs this season will give the runners-up a chance of promotion to National One.
Loney has mixed feelings about play-offs, especially as someone who believes May is all about the County Championship.
He will again be taking the Lancashire reins that month, bidding to lead a Red Rose return to Twickenham for the first time in three years.
Having faced Somerset in Lancashire’s qualifying group in recent years, Loney is relishing a new format involving home and away Roses clashes with Yorkshire.
It’s effectively a two-legged semi-final on May 9 and 16, with the aggregate winners going through to the end-of-season showpiece won for the past three years by Kent.