Cheshire Cup First Round: Sale FC 33-28 Stockport RUFC
By Chris Heal at Heywood Road
(Many Thanks to Sale FC for the use of some Photos from their website)

The visitors led 21-13 at the break thanks to tries from Tom Oben and Elliot Fletcher with the boot of Josh Longmore adding the other 11 points.
Winger Myles Hall added a third try for the red, green and whites, before Sale rallied and mounted a comeback to send them through to the 2nd round of the cup.
Penalties from Liam McGovern and tries from Sale’s scrum-half and Jack Moorhouse turned around a 15 points deficit.
Stockport coach Matthew Bebbington said after the game: “It really was a game of two halves. We played well in the first half, and their kicking game in the second half didn’t allow us to counter and break.”
He added: “But there is a lot we can take from this game heading into the long season ahead.”
Stockport, who lost to Sale last season in this competition, were playing their first competitive game since been promoted to the National League 2 North, and it was perhaps understandable that the early exchanges of the game were littered with penalties from both sides.
The visitors raced into a 9-3 lead via Longmore and it was a good opening 25 minutes for Stockport as Sale were making unforced errors at the breakdowns.
Things didn’t get much better for the hosts as they gave away frequent penalties and were eventually reduced to 14 men when their Number Eight was yellow carded after persistent warnings by referee Chris Bennett.
Fletcher was looking incredibly sharp on his return to the side after a year in Australia and it was his speedy break that set up the first try of the new season for Bebbington’s side.
After a spell of dominating possession, the full-back produced a scorching turn of pace to skip past three oncoming tackles down the right. He flicked the ball to Jonny Edwards who played in winger Oben who went over. Longmore converted.
Sale needed to respond quickly and with 14 men on the field Stockport looked in control, but after McGovern slotted over penalty, Tom Davenport made a strong run which broke the Stockport defensive line. The centre touched down and brought the hosts right back into the tie with the score at 13-16.
Stockport had territory to widen the gap before half-time and took full advantage of it with Fletcher at it again. The agile winger ducked and dived past the hapless Sale defence and went over after very intelligent play by Oben to give Stockport an eight point lead at the break.
Stockport needed just four minutes in the second half to extend their lead as Fletcher’s neat footwork helped the visitors to their third try of the game.
The ball made its way to substitute scrum-half Will Batterbury who floated an accurate pass to Hall scored a well-executed try to put the his side in complete command. The reliable Longmore added the extras.
However, Sale dug deep and decided they were not going to roll over that easily. On the hour mark, the hosts seemed to switch on and started to dominate proceedings. A try from the scrum-half converted by McGovern set up the platform for Sale to mount the comeback.
Intense Sale pressure eventually paid off despite there being a slight moment of controversy. It seemed as if Mark Edwards had been blocked off when he tried to stop the Sale attack, but referee Bennett waved played on and Moorhouse went over to reduce the deficit to just a point at 27-28.
Sale’s long kicking game was working as Stockport couldn’t mount any serious attacks and McGovern struck twice more sending over penalties to complete the comeback.
As the game neared full-time, relentless Stockport pressure didn’t pay off as the hosts stayed disciplined in defence to see out the tie and send Stockport out in round one.
Stockport begin their National Two North campaign next Saturday away at Ampthill & District. Kick-Off 3pm.
Stockport: Fletcher; Oben, J.Edwards, Kaciubskyj, Hall; J.Longmore, M. Edwards; S.Green, Baldwin, Hibbs; Waddington, Roddy, Anthony, Millea, Fuller (capt).
Replacements: O.Longmore, Pearson, A.Green, B Marsland, W Batterbury.