Westoe 5 Sale FC 56

SALE maintained top spot in the league with this dominant display on South Tyneside.

A try in the first two minutes following fine handling by forwards and backs put Jonathan Keep over and Liam McGovern added the first of what would be his eight successful conversions.

Westoe responded by taking play well into the Sale half and with a stiff wind at their backs prevented Sale from getting close to the opposition line.

The visitors extended their lead in the 25th minute when a flowing move saw Jack Moorhouse and Matt Neary combine well to put the latter over for the second try.

Westoe had a player sin-binned but Sale didn’t take the advantage of the extra man, indeed the home side were the next to score.

Sale were penalised in the home '22' and a long clearance kick bounced in favour of the hosts for stand-off Mathew Mellish to race in and narrow the score to 14-5.

Towards the end of the half with Sale on their '22' line a pick up from the base of the scrum by Adam Aigbokhae saw the number 8 put in a powerful run of 70 metres to score Sale’s third try and with McGovern adding the conversion they led 21-5 at half time.

The second half was a disjointed affair for the greater portion of the half.

Sale scored eight minutes after half time when prop Nick Flynn burrowed over, but between then and the start of the final 10 minutes it was a scrappy performance by both sides which saw Agibokhae and Westoe’s Joe McKenzie both yellow-carded.

Scrappy play turned into quality in the final 10 minutes as Sale doubled their lead with four more converted tries.

Aigbokhae repeated his try of the first half with another solo run, and from the restart Chris Mayor and Matt Simpson combined to put Jack Moorhouse over.

The match closed with two more tries for Moorhouse, the first following a long pass to Mayor, and the second after a tap penalty by Sam Stelmaszek sent the Sale winger on a 50m run and McGovern completed a masterclass in goal kicking with his eighth successful conversion.