Fylde 28 Otley 10

Despite the weather being glorious, it took both teams a while to warm to the task, Fylde had their chances through breaks from Tom Grimes and Connor Wilkinson but failed to convert them, while the visitors were enjoying all their success in the scrums.

The visitors scored the first points of the afternoon through a penalty goal only five minutes before half-time, but Fylde grabbed the opening try thanks to Tom Carleton, and soon found themselves 14-3 up after 42 minutes gone.

After suffering two sin bins though they found themselves on the back foot, but Otley couldn’t produce any sort of comeback, and tries from Cole Potts and another from Wilkinson sealed the victory which meant they finished the season off unbeaten at home, with 12 wins and one draw.

Chances were few and far between in the opening stages of the match, 20 minutes had passed and the scoreboard still hadn’t been used, but Fylde were reduced to 14 when Jordan Dorrington was sent to the sin-bin after it was judged he had tackled the Otley winger in the air.

As Dorrington was ready to return to the pitch, it momentarily became 14 versus 14 when Otley’s Jack Gilmartin was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock on.

After 35 minutes Callum Irvine slotted over a penalty goal for the away side to edge them into a 3-0 lead, but he went from hero to zero minutes later when he was sin-binned as he knocked the ball down deliberately and was sent for a 10 minute spell on the sidelines.

Carleton took full advantage for Fylde when he slipped through a gap out-wide to score, Greg Smith converted to make it 7-3 at half-time.

A slow burner of a first-half, but it didn’t take long for the action to get going in the second when Connor Wilkinson scored under the posts in the opening two minutes, Smith converting to take it to 14-3.

Fylde were then hurt with what almost seemed to be a never ending period of scrums, first David Fairbrother being sent to the sin-bin, before Sam Parker joined him for another scrum offense to reduce them to 13.

Backs to the wall defending from Fylde ensued but they couldn’t hold out from the barrage that was taking place, Duncan Darling finding himself in acres of space out-wide to touch down and score in the corner for Otley, with Irvine converting to bring it back to 14-10.

The hosts didn’t fancy losing their unbeaten home league record this season though at the last hurdle and rallied, the returning David Fairbrother influential as ever, as he produced a superb break to set up the supporting Cole Potts who raced away to score, Smith made it three from three to wrestle back control.

All that was needed now was the bonus point, and Wilkinson made sure they got that, with Smith keeping his 100% record from the tee intact to convert, 28-10, game, set, and match Fylde.