SALE FC narrowly missed out on a victory against Oxfordshire rivals Chinnor on Saturday, in an away match which went down to the wire before the hosts won 28-21 in National League One.

Chinnor scored first on 29 minutes when Craig Holland received a delightful pass from Greg Goodfellow.

They then steamrollered from a line-out to double their lead on 36 minutes when Will Bordill planted the ball – repeating the same trick just three minutes later.

Sale had their hackles up and threw everything at the home side in the second half.

Chinnor managed to defend valiantly for 10 brutal minutes, Alex Dancer pulling off at least two try-saving tackles.

The line did not look like cracking until Jack Ramshaw was yellow-carded on 51 minutes.

Sale then hit Chinnor with three tries inside 10 minutes, turning the game on its head.

Ryan Parkinson crashed over with Tom Ailes following soon after.

With the elements in their favour, Sale kicked for position and then put the previously solid Chinnor set-piece under pressure, with Conor Dougherty scoring on 61 minutes and it now looked like everything was going the visitors' way.

A sustained period of pressure was only prevented from ending in points by a series of penalties from Sale.

The referee’s patience was finally tested too far, and another yellow card meant Sale were down to 14 men when Holland scored the decisive try for Chinnor.

Meanwhile, the second team suffered a 36-12 loss at the hands of Vale of Lune.

This Saturday, Sale host Esher at the CorpAacq Stadium, on Heywood Road, kick off 3pm.