Vale made a disastrous start to their first home league game of the season by conceding 19 points in the opening quarter and at the final whistle it turned out to be a too large a deficit to make up in what developed into an exciting contest ably refereed by Robert Sheard.

Burnage's powerful centre caused havoc in the initial onslaught as the Vale back pedalled. He helped to set up the opening try, scored one himself after the visitor's scrum half had embarked on a solo run for his try; two of the tries being converted.

Facing an uphill challenge Vale's fortunes began to change with the introduction of prop Russ Pillow following an injury to Matt Field; inspirational skipper Paul Dorrington swapped sides in the front row. In the thirty fourth minute the strength of the Vale pack came to the fore when they heaved Burnage over their goal line, Scott Foy took full advantage by scoring an unconverted try.

Vale hauled themselves back into contention in the forty seventh minute when Dan Rainford was perfectly positioned to complete a controlled forward drive, his try being converted by Jamie Antcliffe.

Unfortunately just as the Vale were gaining a toe hold in the game they fell further into arrears when a Burnage prop showed a remarkable turn of speed when he broke away for a converted try in the fifty ninth minute.

As the game moved into injury time the Vale brought some respect to the final score line when Andy Muir rounded off a solid afternoon's work, kicking ahead and winning the foot race for an unconverted try.

Vale are still searching for their first league win but they cannot be so generous as they were in the opening minutes if they are going to achieve the all important confidence boosting victory. There was real disappointment felt in the Vale camp at their defeat but there was praise for the contributions made by Dorrington, Pillow, Muir and Danny Lin in a game where a former Vale player Chris Quick made a winning return to The Lane.

Vale A: D Fletcher; A Hill, E Thompson, R Ward, A Muir; J Antcliffe, R Poulson; M Field, S Harrison, P Dorrington (Capt); E Hatton, D Rainford; A Garnett, D Lin, S Foy. Replacements used: G McSporran, R Pillow, J Clarkson.