Fylde have only won the Lancashire Cup once in its 36 year history. Of all the senior Lancashire clubs it has the worst record.
Fylde's only title was back in 1994/5 under the leadership of Brendan Hanavan when they beat Manchester by 15-11 with the help of tries through Greg Anderton & Ian Ashton, plus a conversion & dropped goal by Ian Barclay.
They've been finalists on t
wo other occasions, most recently in 2002 when they were soundly beaten by Sedgley Park. In the last few years they've bowed to the pressures of national league rugby, have inevitably fielded mixed teams of 1st & 2nd team players in the competition and suffered accordingly.
This season's Easter Monday John Burgess Cup Final gives Fylde a great chance to get their hands on this elusive Trophy once more. Following wins over West Park and Broughton Park in earlier rounds, they face a Preston Grasshoppers side at Lightfoot Green (ko 15.00). Preston won the toss of a coin for the privilege of staging the fixture.
Hoppers have a rather better Lancashire Cup record, winning it twice, most recently in 2005/6 against Waterloo, and being losing finalists on four occasions.
Games between these two old rivals have been pretty evenly competed in recent seasons. Whilst Fylde earned a double in the league in the 2007/8 season, Preston had a narrow 14-12 win at Lightfoot Green in December.
Only last Saturday, Fylde got revenge with a clear 41-25 victory at the Woodlands in front of the biggest National Three North crowd of the season. It was an open and entertaining match which was a very good advertisement for national level rugby. If the Cup Final can be anywhere near as good a contest then the hoped for large holiday crowd will be in for a treat.
Fylde's win last Saturday lifts them to 2nd in the division, whilst Preston are in 8th place, comfortably mid-table.
The fate of local derbies between these two clubs has usually had little to do with form or league position. Many have been simply determined by the club wanting it most on the day.
The opposing Directors of Rugby, Alex Keay (Preston) and Mark Nelson (Fylde), are both extremely experienced operators who have coached at the highest level in English rugby. It's likely that the respective line-ups will include a large number of the players who played at the Woodlands last Saturday. It will be fascinating to see if either coach takes a different tactical approach. Hoppers have a bigger set of forwards whilst Fylde's backs have a much better scoring record. But last Saturday saw some fluent running by the Preston backs and some very combative play by the smaller Fylde pack.
Come what may, the Final should provide great Easter Holiday entertainment with a mix of combat and drama that has characterised fixtures between the two neighbours over almost 90 years.
