Sale stave off Bishop’s bid to home in on leading pack
IRRESISTIBLE flyhalf Chris Johnson inspired Sale FC to yet another home victory over Bishop’s Stortford – but the battling visitors almost pulled off a stunning late comeback.
The Dogs – despite failing to win away at all this season – have now won five successive matches on home turf at the Corpaq Stadium to move up into fourth in the National League One standings.
“If not for the last 15 minutes, where we lost our shape and momentum, I’m very happy with the performance,” said Sale FC head coach Jonathan Keep.
“We were very clinical. Bishops Stortford are a good side, so we’re happy to get the win.
“Our home form has been great, but we’re not back here now until December, so we need to work on our away form, but if we do we’ll be right up there.”
First-half tries from Josh Brown, Jake Barron and Tom Walsh, along with seven points from the boot of Johnson, gave Sale FC a 22-3 lead.
Skipper George Cullen scored the visitors’ only points from the tee.
After the restart, the hosts secured the bonus point when Barron scored his second, before the visitors mounted a heroic comeback in the final 10 minutes of the match.
Tries from William Roberts, Samuel Bryan and Chris Smith saw the Bishops reduce the
deficit to just five points – and they could have knicked it late on if it was not for some staunch Sale defending.
A scrum penalty late on allowed replacement Sale kicker James Robins to complete the scoring as the hosts held out for the win.
Bishop Stortford just couldn’t get going in the first half.
Their penalty count was wretched at the breakdown – and they were consistently made to pay by the clinical hosts.
Three of the Sale tries came from line-out drives, with Johnson’s pin-point kicking accuracy and game management getting the Dogs into dangerous positions on the pitch.
The number 10’s overall contribution has come to be expected due to his incredible consistency at this level, and he has to be held up as one of the league’s finest ever operator.
Following the loss, Bishop Stortford head coach Tom Coleman admitted that he was frustrated by his side’s slow start. “Sale are a good side who play with a nice balance, but we made it too easy for them,” said Coleman.
“If you open up and give them the kind of opportunities we did, then they will punish you every time.
“We couldn’t get any momentum and struggled to deal with their energy in defence in the first half.
“We finally reacted positively for the last 15 minutes, but it’s very difficult – near on impossible – to win games at any level if you don’t turn up for 65 minutes.”
While Sale moved into the upper echelons of the table with their victory, the defeat leaves Bishop’s Stortford down in 12th place, with two wins, five defeats and a draw from their eight games so far this season.
While Sale travel to high-flying Rams on Saturday, Bishop’s are without a fixture next week.