It was a frustrating overall performance from the Vale of Lune in what turned out to be an exciting contest at The Lane, but despite their fluctuating fortunes the hosts held their nerve in a mad scramble at the end to post a victory that keeps them in the top half of the table.

Vale's early success were built around a solid mobile resourceful pack with lock Ryan Needham opening their scoring with a powerful burst, his try being converted by Neil Walker in the eighth minute. All the ground work for further scores was being laid by the forwards with the backs being the immediate beneficiaries of their labours.

Harry Bartle scored two tries in the fifteenth and twenty fifth minutes with Jamie Antcliffe crossing the whitewash in the twentieth minute, Neil Walker converted two.

But the Vale's aspirations received a set back when scrum half Ollie Dobson, who has hit a rich vein of form recently, was forced to leave the action with a serious hand injury. While the Vale reshuffled their resources Sandbach took advantage of some poor alignment to collect their first points with a converted try in the twenty ninth minute.

Vale appeared to struggle following Dobson's departure and there was some noticeable hesitancy when Sandbach's stand off intercepted the ball to canter away for a try with six minutes remaining. Stability returned to the Vale's game when Scott Foy, who had been moved into the centre, scored a try, converted by Neil Walker to ensure the home side retained the advantage going into second forty.

However, Sandbach made light of their 21 point deficiency with a purposeful opening to the second half as their experienced number ten began to direct operations. A converted try in the fifty second minute from the visitors followed a passage of rugby where a Sandbach attack was not closed down quickly enough in its early stages.

When a Neil Walker penalty kick rebounded off an upright Tom Smith was the first to react when he gathered the ball for an intuitive try, Neil Walker's conversion again rebounded into the field of play in the sixty fourth minute.

The uprights also played their part in Sandbach's try in the seventy first minute with the conversion again homing in the post but ricocheting back to deny the kicker the extras. Two minutes later a Sandbach try was converted leaving the outcome in the balance and forcing the Vale to ride out a few jittery moments before referee Sheard's whistle drew to a close what had been a game full of incident, it might not have been a classic, but it could not be ignored.

The hard grafting Malcolm Fowler was the pick of the Vale, Ollie Dobson shone before picking up his injury but special mention must be made of Rhys Randall's' return to the colours following his recent illness.

Vale A: K Doyle; A Hill, J Antcliffe, S Coulshed, H Bartle; N Walker, O Dobson; J Stevens, M Field, O Cowey (Capt); D Rainford, R Needham; T Cvijanovic, S Foy, M Fowler. Replacements used: T Smith, J Hodgkinson, R Randall.