By Neil Bonnar

SEDGLEY Tigers need an instant response to last weekend’s devastating derby defeat if they are to have a realistic chance of beating the drop.

The Whitefield men suffered a nightmare 59-20 setback at home to Lancashire rivals Fylde which left them 15 points adrift of safety.

And with just nine games remaining in National League One, they will have to raise a titanic effort in the run-in to win their third relegation fight in four years.

They are at home to eighth-placed Old Albanians on Saturday (kick off 2.30pm) when the fightback must begin.

“All we can do now is look at every game that comes and treat it is as one we just have to win,” said first-team manager Geoff Roberts.

“We have five home games out of nine and we’ve got to be looking to win every one.”

If it could go wrong for the Tigers on Saturday, it did.

Even the good news of second row Jimmy Lloyd’s return from four and a half months out injured was balanced out by a foot injury suffered by wing Phil Largan which will rule him out for between four and six weeks.

Things were going well for half an hour with the Park Lane men winning 13-12 thanks to a Steve Collins try, and a conversion and two penalties from Matt Riley.

After Fylde went 17-13 ahead a major turning point occurred when Sedgley’s Andrew Boyde was sin-binned in the 37th minute.

In the 10 minutes they were down to 14 men, Tigers conceded three converted tries to go 38-13 behind.

Tigers also felt a try they believed was offside played a big part in proceedings.

Roberts added: “Fylde are one of those teams who, when they are in a commanding position, they will really capitalise on it, and they did.

“We lost our way and it ended up a crazy result.”