Fylde RFC’s timely return to winning ways at the Woodlands

Joint-head coach Chris Briers was thrilled by his side’s seven-try show in last Saturday’s 45-7 win over Wharfedale, their first National Two North victory at the Woodlands since December 6.

Briers told The Gazette: “The run was frustrating but we did perform well in some of those games, though not in all of them.

“We have been performing well for spells in games but it’s good to show how well we can play.

“It’s good for the boys because they know there are things they have been doing well – even if people on the outside don’t always see that if they focus on results – so it’s good we’ve shown everyone what we can do.

“That was the performance we wanted. We’ve had a lot of close games this season, so it was nice as a coach not to be doing any panicking.”

There must have been a little anxiety, however, when Fylde conceded the first try of the second half after leading 21-0 at half-time.

After all, they had let a 25-point lead slip with barely 20 minutes to play in their previous home outing against bottom club Scunthorpe.

“The message when Wharfedale scored was to keep calm and learn the lessons from other games,” said Briers.

“Sometimes we’ve had a good lead, conceded one try and it was almost as though we’d gone behind.

“This time everyone seemed to manage the situation well and we showed we are learning from games.”

Winger Leo Gilliland scored an eye-catching hat-trick but Briers added: “It was just a good all-round performance and everyone played well.

“Corey Bowker was our player of the match but nobody did badly and everyone on the bench made an impact.”

After removing the monkey from their back so emphatically – it had been Fylde’s worst winless sequence since the 17 successive National One defeats of 2017/18 – they may wonder why they waited so long for a victory.

“There will always be parts of games that don’t go right and it’s about how you manage those,” was Briers’ assessment.

“We’ve fallen short a few times but we’ve always known we have the rugby ability in this squad to beat anyone in this league.”

The return to winning ways was timely ahead of a weekend off and, with five games to play, Fylde’s run-in is rather fragmented from here on.

They come back for two of them before a three-week Easter break.

Briers added: “It’s bitty for us but that’s not unusual at this stage of the season – and other teams will have more games to catch up on.

“Besides the longer-term injuries we have, there are other injuries you pick up just from the general attrition of the season, so the week off could help us.”