Fylde seal fine draw to cage the Tigers
THERE was nothing to separate the top-two teams in the league as the points were shared in a superb match.
Fylde controlled all of the possession in the opening ten minutes, but it was the visitors who struck first.
After a period of pressure, Oscar Crowe eventually barged his way over to score, with Stephen Collins converting to make it 7-0.
A lot of the action was happening in the middle of the pitch, with neither team making any clearcut chances.
Sedgley were league leaders for a reason though, and they were clinical again after 31 minutes when another strong driving maul saw hooker Danny Maher score his 14th try of the season.
Collins missed the kick, leaving it at 12-0, but Fylde weren’t going to go away quietly, and continued to get their hands on the ball and stick with the Tigers.
After 37 minutes, Sam Stelmaszek was sinbinned for a deliberate knock on, and the hosts
took advantage, moving the ball out wide to David Fairbrother, who crashed over to score.
Smith converted to bring it to 12-7 to Sedgley at half-time.
That try before halftime seemed to have given Fylde the confidence boost they needed, and a slick passing move out to the left put Tom Grimes in at the corner to level things up.
They then went ahead for the first time in the match a few minutes later, Sedgley trying to play out of their own half and dropping the ball, which allowed Connor Wilkinson to pick up the pieces and race away to score, with Smith converting for 19-12 to Fylde.
With their unbeaten record under serious threat, Sedgley responded through a good attacking move of their own, which saw George Bordill finish. Collins converted under pressure to make it all square again with 20 minutes to play.
Both sides tried to take the win, but failed with their penalty goal attempts, and with the 80 minutes well and truly up, Sedgley skipper Matt Riley brought an end to it by kicking the ball out of play.
Fylde joint-coach Chris Briers was proud of the way that his team performed.
He said: “The way we kept the ball in that first half was excellent I thought, and we knew that it had to tire them out, which then gave us those chances in the second half.”
Sedgley failed to win for the first time this season but boss Scott Barrow was relieved to maintain their unbeaten record, keeping them six points clear of Fylde at the division’s summit.
“I didn’t think we were at our best out there today and we made a few errors in that second half but we’re still unbeaten and top which is the main thing,” he said.