Fylde battle back hard to prevail against Chester
by Elliot Burrow
Fylde got their 2022/2023 campaign off to a winning start after being made to work hard for it by a Chester side who pushed them all the way.
It was a blustery afternoon down at The Woodlands, perfect weather for the International Kite Festival which was taking place on the beach, and almost near perfect for both teams to play rugby in, with the rain seeming as though it was also going to hold off.
Fylde welcomed visitors Chester for the opening game of the National Two North Division in only the seventh league meeting between the two sides.
Sam Stott made a starting league debut after joining the club in the off season from Preston Grasshoppers, with former Fylde players Jordan Dorrington and Toby Harrison both making their returns to the club after also re-joining from Grasshoppers.
Connor Wilkinson was back in at centre after missing nearly all of last season with a serious injury which he has now recovered from, while Peter Altham missed out through injury.
Joint coaches Chris Briers and Alex Loney had given their side two stern tests in pre-season, beating Blackburn at home 50-29, before falling to a 34-14 defeat away to Sale FC in the final match.
They were looking to build on last season’s fifth placed finish in the league and push towards promotion this time around.
Chester’s visit here last season saw them fall to a 40-10 defeat, with captain Harry Wilkinson their solitary try scorer and Liam Reeve, who finished fifth in the overall points scoring table with 210, Fylde’s Greg Smith finishing top with 278, adding a conversion and a penalty goal.
They managed to draw with Fylde in the reverse fixture at home, with a later Greg Smith penalty with five minutes to go making it 20-20.
Their coach was former player at the club in Jan Van Deventer, and he had created a perfect balance in his team it seemed, with a strong set of forwards mixed with a dangerous set of backs that could hurt teams from all over the pitch.
An 11th placed finish last campaign with 12 wins along the way showed that they were a team with potential, and with today being the start of a new season it was a chance to showcase to the rest of the league that they could challenge towards the top end of the table.
Chester kicked the game off and won the ball back immediately when Fylde failed to retain the ball in the ruck after catching it.
A penalty was then awarded for the visitors, and Liam Reeve didn’t need any convincing to go for goal, as he opened the scoring to edge them into an early 3-0 lead.
Fylde responded well to falling behind and started to enjoy some possession of their own in the Chester half, and when Matt Sturgess was interfered with deliberately when trying to take a quick penalty tap by Chester wingman Harrison Vale, the Cheshire club were reduced to 14 men.
Fylde made sure they took advantage of having the extra man, captain Ben Gregory powering over from close range, Greg Smith got his points scoring account up and running for the season by converting.
Reeve slotted over another penalty goal before Fylde capitalised on a knock on by the Chester line, before spinning it out wide from the next play to find Tom Carleton in space who obliged and ran over in the corner to score and make it 12-6 to the home side.
Fylde were lacking any fluency though, struggling especially at the line-out, and the visitors continued to chip away at the Fylde defence, and Reeve managed to add another two penalty goals, with the last one coming just before half-time, to make it 12-12 at the break and set it up for second-half which had it all to play for still.
It was Fylde’s turn to kick a penalty goal at the start of the second-half, Smith stepping up to put his side back in front, but they were dealt a blow on 50 minutes when they lost Harlan Corrie to the sin bin.
They didn’t need him though to extend their lead, as Connor Wilkinson went over to make it 22-12, but Chester started to roll, first when Alex Reed powered over, then they hit the front when Gwion Williams finished off a quick break, making it two tries in as many minutes, Reeve converting both to make it 26-22 to Chester, and meaning Fylde now had 20 minutes left to find a response.
Chester then were back down to 14 when Shaun Owen was sin binned, and Fylde made them pay when Gregory scored his second from close range, Smith converting to make it 29-26.
Carleton hadn’t had much space to cause any problems since his first-half score, but in the 77th minute he found himself on the ball and in space, and he burst through a gap in trademark fashion and went on to touch down for his second try of the game and seemingly wrap it up for the home side in the process.
Smith couldn’t convert meaning Fylde led 34-26, before Reeve put over another penalty goal on the final whistle to give Chester a losing bonus point, meaning it finished Fylde 34 – 29 Chester.
A performance which was anything but Fylde’s best, but they managed to dig deep and shrug off a Chester side, who are already going to be a dangerous team to face this season with their strength of their forwards who managed to turn defence into attack many times when Fylde tried to get rolling.
They now face a derby day trip to Preston Grasshoppers, in the first league meeting between the two sides since Preston were promoted from the division below last season, before returning home to face Harrogate on September 17th.
Click here for Chris Farrow’s album of photographs.
Click here for video coverage of Fylde’s five tries.
Fylde: 15 Tom Carleton; 14 Jordan Dorrington, 13 Connor Wilkinson (Sam Stott 67), 12 Sam Stott (Scott Rawlings 55), 11 Tom Grimes (Adam Lanigan 67); 10 Greg Smith, 9 Matt Sturgess; 1 Zach Barrow (Joe Higgins 55), 2 Ben Gregory, (c), 3 Matt Ashcroft, 4 Olli Parkinson, 5 Matt Garrod, 6 Harlan Corrie, 7 Toby Harrison (Ben O’Ryan 70), 8 Dave Fairbrother.
Non-playing replacement: Sam Parker
Chester: Long; Williams, Green, Hampson, Vare, Reeve, Holloway; Woods, Robson, Williams, Charmley, H. Wilkinson (c), Joseph, Baxter, Cox. Replacements: Reed, Croft, Furnival, Owen, Craven.
Star man: Tom Carleton – A tough one to decide really, with skipper Ben Gregory also scoring twice, but the way that Carleton sauntered over for his second try, slicing through the Chester defence and giving Fylde a vital 34-26 lead with three minutes to go, which proved to be the difference between the two sides in the end.
Attendance: 540
Referee: James O’Brien