Fylde welcome Bradford & Bingley to the Woodlands on Saturday (ko 15.00) for another very important National Three (North) fixture. Third placed Fylde must keep winning if they are to put pressure on the clear leaders of the division, Caldy. The new floodlights will be earning their keep in the depth of winter as they allow later kick-off times and make it more convenient for pre-match hospitality. With over 200 people booked in to the pre-match lunch, the Club will be hoping for a very good crowd and lots of vocal support for the home side. Most clubs in N3N would be grateful for a crowd of 200, let alone this number filling the two sponsorship lounges.

A rather curious fact is that of the last six matches between the clubs, there have been three wins each but four of the six have been away victories. The last time that the Bees visited the Woodlands in October 2007 they smashed their way to an extraordinary 40-20 win thanks to a hat-trick of tries by centre Richard Tafa.

This season has been a struggle for the Bees, currently in 12th place in the division, with three wins and a draw from their eleven league fixtures plus a heavy defeat at Midlands One club Broadstreet in the EDF National Trophy. However, they have reserved their best performances away from Wagon Lane and achieved an outstanding 28-23 victory at promotion chasing Leicester Lions three weeks ago. And they nearly beat another promotion outfit Nuneaton last Saturday with only a late try depriving them of victory. So this will be a very tough challenge for Fylde. 

The Bees have had a yo-yo record in recent seasons. They were outstanding champions of N3N in 2005/6 but found it hard to make the step up to National Two and were relegated at the end of their first season. Their 2005/6 squad included several talented South Sea Islanders and two outstanding South African forwards but they went into their N2 campaign with a weaker line-up as several of these players left the club at the end of their promotion campaign.

The Bees returned to N3N last season with a new coaching team and rugby management arrangements. The experienced former Yorkshire, English Counties, Leicester Tigers, Gloucester & Rotherham flanker Neil Spence is now Head Coach, as well as being a regular player, and has been joined in the coaching team by senior player and utility back Stuart Dixon. Both also work as RFU community coaches. A Rugby Management team has been formed covering the whole club consisting of former Bees players Jimmy Lawrence & Chris Hemsley and ex-Bradford Northern player Kevin Hutchinson.

New players this season include fly-half Matt Booth (Bradford Salem), centres Liam Frost, James McBirnie (both from Ilkley) & Dan Sanders (Leeds Carnegie), UCLAN student and back five forward Liam Sharpe & prop Adam Hewitt (Baildon). More recent recruits include Cook Islands international 7s and RL player, backrower Aaron Enoka, and Keighley Cougars RL centre Karl Smith.

Principal departures from last season's squad included Yorkshire County fly-half & goalkicker Tom Rhodes (to Otley), centre Richard Tafa (to Sedgley Park) and backrowers, New Zealanders Jarryd Warren, Patrick Pole and Tongan Sione Onesi.

Danger men in the Bees back line include free scoring former Yorkshire & English Counties winger Mark Kirkby (ex-Orrell, Leeds Tykes & Wakefield), Yorkshire county scrum-half Joe Bartlett, centre Karl Smith and the influential Benny Greaves who has missed much of the season through injury. 

Goal kicking has been shared between a number of players including Stuart Dixon, Matt Booth & Steve Brimacombe.

The strong Bees pack includes highly experienced props Rob Wilson and Ian Judson, locks Richard Hughes and former skipper Barry Clark, who recently broke his arm, and backrower Dave Ford.

The Bees line-up is:

15 James McBirnie; 14 Liam Frost, 13 Karl Smith, 12 Dan Sanders, 11 Mark Kirkby; 10 Steve Brimacombe, 9 Joe Bartlett (c); 1 Ian Judson, 2 James Whitfield, 3 Roger Raper, 4 Richard Hughes, 5 Ben Grange, 6 Guy Ford, 7 Neil Spence, 8 Aaron Enoka.

Replacements: 16 Dan Cookson, 17 Peter Scott, 18 Stuart Dixon, 19 Marcus Dracup, 20 Rob Wilson.

Fylde make five changes in their starting line-up compared with that at Hull Ionians last Saturday. Martin Wallwork and Jordan Davies return from injury to the backline whilst in the pack Alan Holmes takes over at hooker, Canadian international lock Oliver Atkinson at lock and Dan Palmer at openside flanker. On to the bench comes new signing, prop forward Ross Davies.

Fylde: 15 Martin Wallwork; 14 Jordan Davies, 13 Tom Albinson, 12 Mike Waywell, 11 Oliver Brennand; 10 Steve Nutt, 9 Craig Aikman; 1 Sam Simpson, 2 Alan Holmes, 3 Andrew Irving, 4 Oliver Atkinson, 5 Roger Banks (c), 6 Dan Bowman, 7 Dan Palmer, 8 Sam Beaumont,

Replacements: 16 Ross Davies, 17 Mark Darlington, 18 Mark Stephenson, 19 Grant Ferguson, 20 David Wiseman.