Stockport were back in action for the first time since the 19th December and looked a little rusty after the lay off. Sandal allowed the home side to settle their nerves with two penalties that Jonny Edwards dispatched for a 6-0 Stockport lead. The threat from the visitors was intermittent and it was against the run of play when they recorded their only points of the game. They attacked the Stockport line and it appeared that in the final attempt to ground the ball their flanker had thrown the ball forwards. The referee was well placed and awarded the try which was converted. 6-7
Stockport came back strongly with the visitors defending strongly. It took another penalty in the dying moments of the half to put Stockport back in front 9-7.
In the second half it seemed that Stockport had sapped a lot of the Sandal attacking steel but they still proved difficult to break down. Stockport clearly adopted the policy of keeping the ball alive with an off loading game. This ended with Captain Dave Marwick charging over to score from close range after five minutes of the half. No conversion 14-7
In the 54th minute the home side were again encamped on the Sandal line. Awarded a scrum after their last try scoring attempt had been held up they drove towards the line and it was Ben Davey who touched down as the ball crossed the line. Jonny Edwards added the extras 21-7. There were still 25 minutes remaining but the scoring was complete. Stockport created a number of further chances but all came to nothing at the final hurdle with some handling errors.
Stockport travel to Rossendale this week hoping to extend their run of league wins to six.