Fylde Vandals 18 – Blackburn 3^rdXV 7

The Vandals paid the ultimate price when they failed to put a halt to their winning streak at the Woodlands on Saturday. Despite a patchy performance against a determined Blackburn outfit they put together enough scoring chances and defended stoutly (some quite literally) to record the win that now makes avoiding promotion a mathematic impossibility. The mood was sombre in the changing room afterwards as they were forced to experience the bitter taste of success. This victory coupled with defeats for Wigan and Tarleton means the Vandals need only 3 points from their remaining 3 fixtures to clinch the second promotion spot. With a point for turning up and losing even 3 defeats will not rescue them from their plight, these are dark days indeed.

With more than 10 regulars missing some jiggery-pokery was needed from the selectors. Skipper Phil Swindells and Ed Mahon were both missing so Pete ‘Housewife’s Choice’ Tankard dictated play from stand off, Rupert Cobain came in at hooker for his first outing of the season and Luke Clitheroe was a new face at full back replacing Satch. Mystery surrounds the disappearance of Satch, his facebook posts indicate he has lost his enthusiasm for the game and he was last seen wandering lonely as a cloud on the Old Man of Coniston doing his best Greta Garbo impersonation as he wailed, “I want to be alone”. At least if he gets lost on the Fells the rescue team will be able to spot him in that horrible green jumper of his. Come back please Satch, it won’t be the same without you, I’ll have one less person to take the mickey out of for a start!

Anyway back to those that did turn up. Ollie Watts was a welcome returnee and with backs in short supply Richard Mason had a 10 minute crash course in centre play before the match and took to it like a duck to water…a duck that is allergic to water that is. The warm up was curtailed due to the important business of getting the Grand National sweepstake sorted out but finally in glorious sunshine that was a danger to the many baldy heads in the team the match began.

Fylde started well as they so often have this season and dominated possession, with only 3 minutes on the clock they recycled the ball having created the overlap and Clitheroe strolled over for the opening score, Tankard failed with the kick but the home team were 5-0 up. For the next 10 minutes Fylde continued to dictate play and pressure the away team but crucially they failed to turn the pressure into any more points. Blackburn defended well and with their big pack the Vandals eight were not having things their own way, that final phase of possession that usually yields the try was not forthcoming as good defensive play combined with a fair bit of rascalry on the referee’s blindside was not helped by Fylde losing the ball in contact too often and all this disrupted the phase building ability of the home side. The away team were buoyed by their defensive effort and on the half hour mark they struck themselves. Taking advantage of an almighty mix up at the back of a scrum on half way they pounced on the loose ball and it was popped to the winger who had a clear run in to the corner from 50 yards out. A tremendous touchline conversion sailed over and after being in the ascendancy for most of the match Fylde were a bit bemused to find themselves behind 7-5, which is how it stayed till half time.

Fylde regrouped in the interval and whilst they didn’t manage to dominate totally at any point they reduced the error count enough to get into good field position. On 47 minutes Tankard called a set move in the backs that was to prove decisive. It was hard to tell whether the Blackburn backs were mesmerised by Tankard’s magical mastery of the dummy scissors or just lulled into a catatonic state by the slow motion nature of the steel-haired stand off, reminiscent of the Bionic Man on TV back in the seventies on a Saturday tea-time. Whatever the case they stood transfixed as Dave Storey ran a delicious angle and carved through the defence like the proverbial knife through butter. As usual once through the gap Dave looked for someone to run into but finding nobody there decided he had better dot the ball down near the post for the try and duly did. Tankard stopped congratulating himself long enough to dob the conversion over and the Vandals were back in the lead at 12-7.

The rest of the half was a fairly tense affair. Whilst Blackburn never really threatened the Fylde line too seriously Fylde could not get on top of the opposition for long enough to make the game totally safe. Latus, Williams, Rigby and Hewitson came on for McCartan, Stead, Tomkinson and Watts and apologies go to Vic Cottam who I never managed to get on to the pitch, I did offer him 10 minutes but he declined the offer, telling me it took him 15 to get going properly.

On 56 minutes Tankard kicked a penalty to take Fylde two scores ahead at 15-7 and 5 minutes from time he kicked another for the final points of the game. In between Fylde did manage to waste a couple of good scoring opportunities, none more so than when Storey made another fine break, the ball was popped to Hodgy who promptly knocked it on with one defender to beat and just about the whole of the Fylde team in support ready to take the scoring pass. Hodgy has been a talismanic force all season and is streets ahead the top try scorer but even he would admit he did not have his finest day on Saturday. Normally as good a pair of hands as you will see he had obviously decided to save up all his knock-ons for the season for this one match, sponsored for the day by Tefal rather than Evostik. But even Hodgy having a rare off day could not induce the Vandals to find the defeat they so desperately needed and there was only time left for the Blackburn hooker to annoy the ref one time too many and get yellow carded before the final whistle went. The victory was Fylde’s 18-7 and with other results also going against them the promotion they feel so ambivalent about is almost certainly theirs.

Man of the match was Dave Storey, rumour has it he was out imbibing heavily the night before so he’s obviously the Bill Werbeniuk of the 5^thteam and performs better when under the influence, we’ll have to make him go out every week if he plays like this after a night on the pop. Thanks go to Luke Clitheroe for a frisky and sometimes feisty performance at full back and Rupert Cobain for a solid performance in the hooking role. Well done to the whole squad for another good team performance especially the defensive effort which in the end is what won this game. Joking aside it is a tremendous effort to get promoted, especially given the early season 6 point penalty which was no fault of our own, congratulations to everybody who has contributed this season and of course our faithful supporters the Vandalettes, team photographer Carne and other assorted waifs and strays who turn up and help out.

Next week the Vandals entertain Furness at the Woodlands, kick off 3 o’clock. It would be great to win the game and confirm promotion for sure on the same day that we expect the 1^stXV to do the same on the main pitch and celebrate two club promotions afterwards and into the night with the race night at the club. Please make every effort to be available to play or come and support.

Team:  Scott, Cobain, Tomkinson, Stead, Todd, James, Hodgkins, Watts, Townsend P, McCartan, Tankard, Mason, Storey, Townsend S, Clitheroe                    

Subs:  Hewitson, Williams, Latus, Rigby, Cottam