"When a rugby club is successful, it does more than win matches. It has a supportive background organis-ation that ensures that everything runs smoothly, and nothing detracts attention from the preparation of the team.

Unsuccessful teams tend to be the converse of this. Saturday saw the final piece in the puzzle of this season's shambolic operation, when the team bus once again got hopelessly lost.

This may be excusable in previously unvisited parts of the distant Thames Valley. It may even be understandable in the North-East.

But to get lost on the way to a local derby beggars belief. If Saturday's events had occurred in a film it would have been dismissed as hopelessly implausible.

There are some villages of unsuspected delight on the Fylde coast. Some wonderful stretches of sea front and some fairly unremarkable red-brick housing estates.

I wasn't aware of all of these things before Saturday's charabanc excursion, but my mind has been opened to them, through the benefit of close inspection. Sadly, very few of them are in Ansdell, our destination.

When Dennis Bibby strode to the front of the bus as the last remaining hope of navigational salvation, Ladbrokes immediately lengthened the odds of the game taking place at all.

When the travelling circus finally arrived, there was less than an hour to kick-off.

And genuine concern as to whether those responsible for route-finding were going to be able to find their way from the car park to the bar for a pre-match drink.

The team eventually happened upon the tiny, dismal, upstairs recess that is the visitors' changing room, an apparent after-thought in a lavish new clubhouse that rather puts the Charnock Richard Services on the M6 to shame.

There were ugly memories of a passive second-half performance at Fylde in a Powergen Cup game earlier in the season, which had offered plenty of opportunity to inspect the decorative condition of the back of the posts.

On that occasion, the selection committee had needed to pull some rabbits out of the hat to put a team on the field at all, and this week was no different. The omens at the opening whistle were not good.

In the event, it was a stirring performance, and one which left plenty of room for optimism.

The defence was much more resolute and dependable, and the ball retention outstanding.

Having had threequarters of the first half possession, it was disappointing to return to the upstairs recess at half time 7-3 in arrears.

This, ultimately, illustrated the difference between the teams. We were unable to cross the home line despite considerable and repeated pressure, for which the home defence must take much credit.

By contrast, Fylde scored on almost all of their infrequent visits to the Kendal 22.

I felt that there was a real sense of progress on Saturday. We now face three games before Christmas, which offer a real chance of reversing fortunes before the New Year.

Two of these games are at home, where we have played only three times this season.

There is every reason for optimism - at least that we might find the ground next week.