Early on Park showed they meant business with scything runs through to score by Adam Frampton and Henry Robinson, both efforts converted by fly half Harry Leonard for 14-0 after only eight minutes.

The home side came back with tries through Arnold and Willkinson, the second of which was converted for 14-12 on 24 minutes.


Solid Park defence

Then Park took over. A brace of tries by winger Dom Morris, the second of them converted, sandwiched between two Leonard penalties, gave the visitors a commanding 32-12 lead at the interval.

Fylde emerged for the second half a team inspired. An early try by Turley for the home side served notice of intent.

Leonard chipped over a penalty for 35-17, but thereafter Park came under immense pressure and discipline began to fray to the extent of two yellow cards.

Tries by Wilkinson and Burtonwood, the first of them converted, closed the score to 35—29 with thirteen minutes remaining.

A Leonard penalty steadied the ship at 29-38 with ten minutes left, only for Stewart to go over to take Fylde within four points.

However, Park weathered the storm with some magnificent and committed tackling and regained the initiative to set up a try for prop Zianna Alexis in the last minute, converted by Leonard for a 45-34 away win.

Park: Robinson; Aspland-Robinson, Henderson, Reay, Morris; Leonard; Weir; Wade, Gleave, Maguire; Frampton, Spivey; Milne, Harries, Ellis
Bench: Vaughan-Edwards, Alexis, Boyle, Crow, Field
Park scorers: Morris (2T), Frampton (T), Robinson (T), Alexis (T), Leonard (4P, 4C).

Park’s Attack and Defence Coach, Scott Sneddon, said,”We were very happy to come away from fylde with a good 5 points. It is a tough place to go and not many people will come away with a result up there.

“The first 40 minutes was probably the best half of rugby we've played this season, then we did our best to throw the game away in the second half.

“Fylde will never give up playing and our second half performance was poor. We got a bit complacent in defence and our discipline almost cost us the game”.

Looking forward to the coming Saturday’s match at home to Coventry, kicking off at 3:00 PM,he added, “We’ll take confidence from the first 40 and take that into Coventry this week. It is another massive game, they are a strong team in a similar position to us in the league and looking to climb the table. We need to produce an 80 minute performance to ensure we keep building momentum and push up the league”.

Charlie Addiman

Images: David Whittam

November 21, 2016