FYLDE face former dual-code international John Bentley and his Cleckheaton side after making a winning start to their season on Saturday.

Fylde took four hard-earned league points by grinding out a 20-5 victory over Macclesfield at The Woodlands.

Fylde looked nervous in the first few minutes and their cause wasn't helped when centre Paul Reeves was helped off after only five minutes with a back injury.

But on nine minutes a series of drives by their forwards saw Os Van der Walt force his way over for his first try for the club. Mike Scott converted easily for the first of, no doubt, a stack of points during the season.

On 30 minutes Scott attempted a long range penalty which cannoned off the post and neatly

into the hands of a Macc defender. As the player made ground down the middle of the pitch he was tackled by hooker Alex Moffatt who got the full force of his knee on the top of his head and played no further part.

The home side's cause wasn't helped when Grant Ferguson was harshly yellow carded for killing the ball at a ruck. Macclesfield took advantage early in the second half and, after a series of drives, prop Scott Goodfellow ploughed over for the try. But, summing up their goal kicking performance, Mike Newell missed a straightforward conversion.

The best and most crucial moment of the match came on 62 minutes. The highly impressive

Richard Kenyon got the ball in midfield and scythed through the Macclesfield backline. As full back Ben Coulback moved in for the tackle, Kenyon chipped ahead. A great piece of covering by Dave Muckalt, seemed to have saved the day for Macc but the referee judged harshly that he didn't get sufficient downward pressure on the ball. The following up Kenyon just managed to touch the ball down as it was about to go over the dead ball line.

Muckalt's protests to the referee earned him another harsh yellow card and Scott converted to give his side a 17-5 lead.

The scoring ended with another Scott penalty on 67 minutes.

Fylde will check on injuries to prop Jon Webster, hooker Alex Moffatt and centre Paul Reeves before selecting their side. Its hoped that registration difficulties with new signings Kiwi flanker Quentin King and back Paul Newton will be resolved in time for them to be available for selection.

Star centre Karl Long is expecting to be back playing in around a month's time following a serious achilles tear last April.