Fylde and Sedgley play out exciting 19-19 draw

The build-up to the match was quite simple, it was first in the league versus second, the home side the perfect nine from nine on their own soil, the visitors winning all 19 matches so far this season, someone’s 100% record, having to go.

But no one even considered the possibility that both of them could.

A lapse in concentration at a line-out saw the visitors react the quickest and Oscar Crowe eventually barged his way over to score after a sustained bombardment on the Fylde line, with Stephen Collins converting to make it7-0.

Sedgley were seemingly just waiting to pounce though, and they were clinical on 31 minutes to take their next chance, when another strong driving maul saw hooker Danny Maher score his 14th try of the season.

Collins missed the kick, leaving it at 12-0, but Fylde weren’t going to go away quietly, and came roaring back.

On 37 minutes, Sam Stelmaszek was sin binned for a deliberate knock on, and the hosts took advantage, sucking the visitors into the middle, and moving the ball out-wide quickly to David Fairbrother who crashed over to score on his 150th appearance for the club.

Smith converted to bring it to 12-7 to Sedgley at half-time.

That try before the break seemed to have given Fylde the confidence boost they needed, and a slick passing move out to the left put Tom Grimes in at the corner to level things up.

They then went ahead for the first time in the match a few minutes later, Sedgley trying to play out of their own half and making an uncharacteristic error, which allowed Connor Wilkinson to pick up the pieces and race away to score, Smith converted and it was 19-12 to Fylde.

With their unbeaten record under serious threat, Sedgley responded through a good attacking move of their own, George Bordill finishing it off and Collins converting to make it all square again with 20 minutes to play.

Pressure bumped up another notch, if that was even possible at this point.

There’s that saying that all good things come in threes, both teams had scored three tries each in the match and now it was time for the three penalty goal attempts.

First Collins tried to edge his side back in front from 40 metres out, nothing but silence as he stepped up, but his attempt fell wide.

Smith then decided it was Fylde’s turn to give it a crack as well, more silence ensued, but his effort from 50 metres out was also unsuccessful.

Third time is usually the charm then, but that wasn’t to be the case for Smith, you could hear a pin drop once more as he approached to kick it, but his effort fell short with only two minutes left on the clock, and left it level.

By the time that Sedgley skipper Matt Riley decided to bring an end to it all by kicking the ball out of play from a penalty tap, we had well and truly gone past the 80 minute mark, almost five minutes to be exact.

19-19 it finished, the points shared, a classic had just played out.