Rosslyn Park 20 Fylde 14
Head coach Alex Codling applauded his side’s resilience after a narrow and hard-fought victory over table neighbours Fylde earlier.
Scott Sneddon kicked two penalties after the interval as well as converting first-half tries from Mike McFarlane and Dave Vincent as Park raced into an early lead.
But tries from Fylde’s Warren Spragg and Chris Johnson, both converted by the latter, restored parity before Sneddon’s penalties, and Codling was impressed by his side’s spirit.
He said: “The team put in a great deal of effort, perhaps epitomised by our resilience in the final moments when Fylde asked us many questions.
“But the boys answered them all and we got a vital win. Credit to Fylde though, they pushed us all the way up until the end.”
Codling added that the victory was all the more important after two successive losses in their previous fixtures and his side needed to winning ways.
McFarlane scored the opening try in the eighth minute, bundling the ball over from a few metres out, leaving Sneddon with an easy, and duly taken, conversion.
The hosts raced into a 14-0 lead 15 minutes later when captain Hugo Ellis set up a rampaging Vincent for a second try, with Sneddon again converting.
Spragg immediately responded by exposing a large gap in Park’s back division, motoring away from a static defence before Johnson added the extras.
Seven minutes after the interval, Fylde were level with Johnson this time finding the space to score a converted try under the posts.
But Park’s fly-half would have the final say with his left boot, scoring two penalties but missing one which would have the closing stages far less frenetic.
Speaking about the late penalty miss, Codling said: “Given our recent luck, you always started to think that the wheels could fall off when that happens.
“But we got the win in an excellent team performance. We played sensibly at times too, taking the threes when they presented themselves.”
Codling stated that despite the positives, his side were not clinical enough and wasted a number a chances to increase the margin of victory.
“We’ve got another tough game next week against Loughborough,” he said, “so hopefully we can address this before then.”
