Fylde 22 Hull Ionians 15: match report by Elliot Burrow
This was a clash that certainly lived up to all the pre-match expectations, and one that went right down to the wire, with only a single converted score separating the two teams by the end of the eighty minutes.
Fylde might look back on the victory as pivotal come the end of the season, as they battled the elements and a strong Hull Ionians side to keep their unbeaten home record in the league intact, and stay within touching distance of league leaders Sedgley Park.
The home side kicked off 2023 with a brilliant performance away to Harrogate, running out 52-0 winners to give them their first clean sheet of the season, and making it the third time that they had passed the 50 point mark this campaign.
From that game they made two changes to the side, Harlan Corrie coming in for the unavailable Matt Garrod, and Henry Higginson slotting in for Tristan Woodman who was away with the England Under 20’s, after originally being named as an injury replacement but having since then been called up to the full squad.
Hull Ionians were on an impressive run themselves, winning their last eight matches in a row, and sitting 3rd in the table and five points behind Fylde in 2nd. Their last defeat came away to Sedgley on October 1st in an 18-10 loss, and they were going to make sure they gave Fylde a very uncomfortable afternoon at the office.
Before Christmas when the two sides met over in Hull, Fylde came away with all five points, edging it 34-31, and it was down in the script to be a close one once more, as the visitors kicked proceedings off into the strong wind blowing in from the Lytham coast, and got the ball rolling.
Fylde are known for making fast starts in their home games, but they were beaten to it this time around, the visitors opening the scoring with only two minutes gone on the clock, with an excellent break up the right from Josh Britton who found winger Cameron Burnhill to score in the corner. Lewis Minikin couldn’t convert due to the strong cross wind but Ionians had an early 5-0 lead.
The home side didn’t appreciate the fact that they hadn’t opened the scoring and hit back straight away with a Greg Smith penalty goal to get them up and running.
Smith came into the game 3rd in the overall N2(N) points scoring table on 121, and that penalty goal took him level with the man in 2nd place who was playing for Ionians, Lewis Minikin, who was on 124 points.
Prop Matt Ashcroft then went off injured for Fylde just before the 30 minute mark and was replaced by Adam Lewis who helped play a part in setting up Fylde’s first try of the afternoon. A strong drive by Lewis put Fylde on the front foot, and from there they moved the ball out to the right through hands, sending left wing Tom Grimes through the line who found fullback Jordan Dorrington who passed back inside to Cole Potts to go over for a try on his home debut.
Smith converted from in front of the posts to give Fylde a 10-3 lead, one that had required a lot of hard work to achieve.
Both sides continued to trade chances with neither being able to land that killer blow to take them more than a converted score ahead.
Ionians then levelled the scores up before half-time with Fylde losing the ball at the lineout, and from the resulting plays a delicate chip kick over the top was eventually touched down by centre Minikin for his ninth try of the campaign. He couldn’t convert though, keeping it 10-10 at the break.
It didn’t take the visitors long to pick up where they left off in the second half, a slick passing move out to the left found winger James Thompson who dived over in the corner to put them back in front.
They then lost Burnhill to the bin for a deliberate knock down and the hosts took advantage, Potts going over for his second of the game and levelling things up once more with 25 minutes to play.
After a period of pressure from Ionians, Fylde also found themselves down to 14 when Scott Rawlings was sin binned, but still neither side could find that score to put themselves in front.
The visitors had the best chance to do this when they were camped on the hosts line for a five minute spell, but they couldn’t make the possession count, and when it looked as though both teams were going to have to settle for a draw, Fylde managed to nick it.
In a tense ending, not for the faint hearted, Fylde managed to win the ball back after constantly being on the back foot near their own line, and a penalty allowed them to march up the field and relieve some of that pressure. Despite losing possession, they soon won it back when Ionians kicked the ball out on the full, and they started to creep closer to the Ionians line, phase by phase.
Just as it appeared as though their drive had been halted, they threw the ball out to playmaker Smith, who slipped Rawlings a short ball to send him through a gap in the Ionians defence, and the big man with delicate hands passed back to the supporting Connor Wilkinson to finish it off and score to the acclamation of his team mates. Smith converted and Fylde had won it 22-15.
After the match, and once he had managed to regain his breath and get his heart rate back down to normal again, Fylde joint head coach Chris Briers spoke about how he was delighted with his side digging deep to get the win.
He said: “We got a bit frustrated with ourselves in that first half, but in the second there we had some really important moments where we stuck in defensively, and in the end we turned it around and went up the other end and scored that winning try and grabbed a brilliant victory.”
Job done, albeit in nail-biting circumstances, and another win on the board more importantly for Fylde, who continued to keep up their bid to chase down Sedgley at the top of the pile. Potts certainly lived up to his namesake at scrum half and fitted the mould perfectly on his home debut with two tries. Ultimately though it was a team performance that was full of grit and determination that got them the win, because Hull Ionians had executed a near perfect game plan, and put in a brilliant performance themselves.
A trip to the North East now awaits Fylde when they take on Blaydon next week, before returning back to the Woodlands on January 28 for another exciting clash against Rotherham Titans.
Click here for Chris Farrow’s excellent portfolio of match photos.
Line-ups
Fylde: Dorrington (Harrison 70), Lanigan (Turner 55), Stott (Rawlings 40), Wilkinson, Grimes, Smith, Potts, Bowker (Barrow 70), Gregory, Ashcroft (Lewis 28), Parkinson, Corrie, Harrison (Stott 64), Higginson, Fairbrother. Non-playing replacement: Partington.
Hull Ionians: Townend, Burnhill, Minikin, Britton, J.Thompson, Smith, Pocklington, Morton, Hudson, Bell, Makin, Campbell, Powell, Sanderson, Mewburn. Replacements: Laverick, Westwood, Heelas, D.Thompson, Wilson.
Star man: David Fairbrother – A tricky one this. A honourable mention definitely has to go to Cole Potts who was excellent on his home debut with his two tries, the latter set up by Fairbrother who passed it from the back of the ruck to him to score easily in the corner. Fairbrother himself though was magnificent, his strong determined running going forward matched with some ball control that basketball players would have been proud of, saw him cause Ionians problems every time he had possession, and never let up for the full 80 minutes. The only way to describe his performance would be ‘vintage Fairy’.
Game breaking moment: Wilkinson’s 76th minute try from the break by Rawlings – it had to be the winning try didn’t it, because what else could it be? Preceding this moment, Fylde spent a period of time camped on their own line struggling to get out with the score still 15-all. When their heroic defence earned a penalty against the visitors they did manage to get territory, as a penalty allowed them to move close to the Ionians line. Rawlings came storming onto a short Smith ball, broke through the line, and offloaded to the supporting Wilkinson who carried the visitors full back over whitewash with him to score and win the game for Fylde.
Referee: Tim Allatt