Billingham 39 Fylde 17: match report by Simon Taylor
Fylde made the long trip to the North East to visit Billingham for the second time this season to replay the game abandoned at half time 7 weeks previously, when Storm Darragh had wreaked havoc with the attempts to fulfil the fixture. They endured a tough first 20 minutes, when they trailed 12-0, fought back to lead 17-12 at half time, only to fade badly in the second half and ship 27 unanswered points to go down by 6 tries to 2, their fifth road trip reverse from 9 away fixtures so far.
In early December, Billingham had battled for 40 minutes into the teeth of the storm, and somehow managed to lead 5-0, only for the game to be called off. This had no doubt irked them for the period since and formed part of their motivation to complete what they started that day. Although they sat bottom of start of play, their form has recently picked up, having beaten Hull and only lost by 1 point to Tynedale, and by 6 points away at league leaders Leeds. With not much separating the bottom 6 or 7 teams, and only 10 games left, they were in no mood to be denied a win again and started strongly against a Fylde team showing several changes.
With both skipper Toby Harrison and his deputy Dave Fairbrother missing it was great to see local lad Matt Garrod given the honour of captaining the team for the first time. Having lost 2 props to injury in the previous game Olli Trippier started with Pete Altham and with hooker Tom Davis unavailable young Robbie Kincart got a rare start in that key position. Mike Walton moved to number 8 against his old team, Greg Morgan started at second row and Matt Aschroft was in the back row. The experienced Jordan Dorrington was still missing but his brother Ben was on the bench along with young prop John Murray making his senior debut and Cam Railton providing hooker cover.
Billingham fielded a strong and muscular team, especially up front, and they dominated the first quarter on the 4G pitch, what wind there was being much more manageable than last time out. Billingham forced 3 early penalties, and on the last of these their experienced veteran prop Dan Dixon, having recently been coaxed out of retirement to sit on the bench then quickly become a starter, brought his wily nous to the fore, as he tapped and crashed over for an unconverted try on 4 minutes. Fylde’s first possession came to nothing, and the home team were soon camped in the Fylde 22 again, with that man Dixon turning up again, this time wider out, to rampage over for his second after 13 minutes, this one converted by stand-off Peter Evans, and Fylde were 12-0 down and under the cosh.
Fylde tackled hard to stem the flow, started to earn some yardage of their own and gradually fought their way into the game, as Dixon took a breather on the sidelines and the early barrage of Billingham heavy artillery at last relented a tad. On the half hour, with Fylde having a penalty advantage, Patrick Bishop slid the grubber kick through, winger Cam Smith gathered, swerved round the last man and outpaced the cover to run in under the sticks from halfway. Bishop converted and knocked over a penalty 5 minutes later and Fylde were within a couple at 12-10 down. Things got even better right on half time when they went ahead for the first time. Billingham had a scrum on Fylde’s line and spun the ball wide, only for winger Ben Turner to intercept and set off like a whippet. Just when it looked like the chasing winger might get him, Turned produced a cracking hand off to sit him down and complete the length of the field score. Bishop converted, and Fylde had done remarkably well to weather a different kind of storm this time, and go into the break at 17-12, 5 points up this time round.
At half time John Murray came on for Pete Altham for his first 1st VX game time, and Freddie Reader replaced Alex Clayton. The second half started promisingly for Fylde as the Billingham second row Ryan Kirkbride was yellow carded for a high tackle. However, Fylde could not take advantage of the extra man, and the day quickly started to go wrong for Fylde. First, Patrick Bishop took a knock and soon after made way to be replaced by Tom Forster, with a big back line re-shuffle needed, Lucas Atherton going to stand off, Forster to centre and Reader to full back. Then Fylde were themselves reduced to 14 men when, after a series of high tackles of their own when under pressure, Olli Trippier was the one to be sent to the naughty step. Billingham then only needed 1 minute to make it count, as they launched a series of drives that culminated in winger Eldon Myers going over under the sticks. Evans converted to make it 19-17 to the home team, and their yellow card was reversed.
Things went from bad to worse as some porous defence on the wide out allowed winger Joe Scarborough to brush off two tackles and race in from deep, unconverted but Billingham had gone from 5 points down to 7 ahead at 24-17 in the space of 3 minutes. More was to come 5 minutes later
As Billingham went over again. Fylde had struggled to secure their own line out ball all day and another error gave Billingham the scrum 20 yards out. That set piece was also under pressure and with penalty advantage being played Billingham went open then switched blind again and Dixon, having re-joined the fray, showed he can score from 15 out as well as he blasted through for his hat-trick try. A lovely touchline conversion by Evans made it 31-17 after nearly an hour.
Ben Dorrington had by now replaced Ashcroft and he put himself about to good effect. However, with set piece ball being scarce and Bishop off the field, Fylde were struggling to impose any pattern on the game or stress the resolute home defence. Billingham soaked up whatever Fylde could throw at them and then scored again on 69 minutes, centre Louie Groark the man to dive over. Evans converted and even had time to knock over a 77th minute penalty to rub further salt in the wounds. Cam Railton was rewarded for making the trip with some game time nearer the end, but Fylde were soundly beaten by now and the referee brought an end to a chastening day for the visitors.
Billingham were deserved winners and moved themselves off the bottom in doing so. If they continue to perform like this, they will give themselves every chance of staying in the league. Dan Dixon was rightly named their man of the match, with Ben Turner the choice for Fylde. Fylde stay in 4th, 4 points ahead of Wharfedale and with a game in hand on them, a full 22 points behind Lymm in third.
Coach Alex Loney said: “We are really disappointed; the performance was nowhere near what we expect. They were well motivated and have shown good recent form. We got 17-12 up at half time after a tough start but in the second half we needed to be calm and accurate and we were far from that, we made too many errors, looked a bit flat and didn’t have what we needed to overcome the adversity we faced. Having said that, the squad are superb to work with and we have the chance to respond next week against Sheffield Tigers, who are also fighting for their league survival, so we need to work hard this week, grunt up and get it right next week.”
Fylde: Atherton, Turner, Clayton (Reader 40), Stott, Smith, Bishop (Forster 47), Gould, Walton, Quinn (Altham 55), Ashcroft (Dorrington B. 54), Garrod (Captain), Morgan, Altham (Murray 40), Kincart, Trippier (Railton 78)
Billingham: Hopley (Pickering 51), Scarborough (Lane 56), Groark, Wilson L., Myers E., Evans, Husband, Wilson J. (White 40), Myers N., Campbell, Burns, Kirkbride, Dixon (Watson 23/Dixon 51), Graham, Brown. Unused sub (Lydiatt)