Sale FC 37 - 16 Cleckheaton

Cleckheaton travelled to the famous Heywood Road ground to face the side that are widely fancied to top the league come next April. This was always going to be a challenging fixture for the Moorenders and the afternoon was about putting in a determined performance and making Sale work for any points. At half time the assembled throng of former players, who had earlier attended a lunch to mark the naming of the main stand after Sale and Lancashire stalwart Richard Trickey, were very worried that the day may also be marked by a Cleckheaton win.

Sale opened their account early when scrum half Ciaran Connolly made a break up centre field and put Jack Moorhouse in for the homeside’s first try. Liam McGovern, who would go on to have a perfect record with the boot, added the conversion. Ross Hayden cut the lead with a penalty on 10 minutes and then narrowed it to a single point following good work from Martin Woodhead, which led to another transgression by Sale and a second penalty goal from Hayden.

The score remained the same for the next 15 minutes as defences were on top and neither side could break down the other but Sale ended the deadlock with a penalty goal of their own. Cleckheaton’s forwards then took the game to the men from Heywood Road and Ollie Akroyd stole a line-out from the home side on their 22. With a great drive by the pack, which forced Sale on to the back foot, Danny Vento was able to spin away and score midway between the sticks and the touch line. Ross Hayden converted to give Cleckheaton a 13–10 lead.

Cleckheaton looked to be in the ascendency and pressured Sale at every opportunity, including two charge downs by Paul Turner. The home side could not breakout of their own quarter and eventually conceded a penalty, which Hayden once again converted to lead 16-10 at the interval.

Cleckheaton exerted a lot of pressure at the start of second half and for a few minutes the prospect of an upset seemed very plausible. However, a loose pass was seized upon by former Wigan, Wasps and Sale Sharks player Chris Mayor and after a series of full pace inter-passing with his wing partner, the centre went in for a long range try. This seemed to spark Sale’s pacey three quarter line into life and only a few minutes later Mayor once again broke through resulting in a try for Connelly. Both scores were converted and McGovern also added a penalty to give Sale a 27-16 lead. Down but not out, Cleckheaton continued to play with commitment but lost Jack Bickerdike to a nasty gash to the head and then Rob Afoa Peterson picked up a yellow card when the referee deemed his intended interception was a deliberate knock on. As the previous games this season have shown, having a man in the sin bin in this league is usually accompanied by the conceding of a try and Sale proved the point as Adam Aigbbokhae went in for his team’s bonus point try. Cleckheaton made some headway in the last 10 minutes but couldn’t break the Sale defence and the game drew to a close with a final penalty goal on full time for McGovern.

This was a creditable performance by Cleckheaton against one of the top sides in the league. They were eventually undone by Sales considerable pace but should take pride from their commitment and if they can take that into this weekend’s home game against Rossendale, their efforts should be rewarded with some league points.