No excuses next season warns Fylde boss Spragg

Nick Ashcroft (left) impressed his coach

Fylde put plans in place for an immediate return

Victory in the clash of National One’s bottom two tomorrow, when Old Albanian visit The Woodlands, will surely be too little too late as Fylde are 26 points from safety with just 35 left to play for.

Chairman of rugby Roger Banks revealed the club is planning for one season at the lower level after seven in National One, and head coach Spragg warns there will be no excuses next term.

He told The Gazette: “We have probably been a bit easy on the players in terms of expectations this season because they are a young squad.

“Next season they will not be so young and will have a season of National One rugby behind them.

“The expectation will be that they will be able to deliver next season and they will be held accountable if they don’t, as I will be too.

“There are a lot of good things going on at the club at the moment, on the commercial side and in the community, and we have play our part by getting the support back.

“The club is moving forward, it’s an exciting place and we need to play our part.”

Spragg accepts Fylde are most probably beyond the point of no return this season but he remains determined to do the double against Albanian.

He added: “They are one place above us and the expectation should be that we get our game-plan right and deliver on the field.

“The players have been given a lot of detail and this is a game we would expect to win at home.

“Mathematically we can still stay up if we win our last seven games, but we realise that will be difficult as we’ve only won three.

“The plan is to get better playing our trademark brand of rugby to make sure we hit the ground running in September.”

Tomorrow’s opponents Old Albanian may be only one place above Fylde but they are 14 points better off and are battling for survival.

They won their last game against Bishop’s Stortford, whereas Fylde have lost 10 in succession.

Spragg added: “There will be an element of experimenting in the coming weeks because we want to give lads an opportunity looking to next season.

“A lot of players really stepped up against Birmingham-Moseley (in Fylde’s last match) and we are looking for that to continue. The backs were as good as we’ve seen and Nick Ashcroft had a very strong game.”