Stockport second team having won the league in emphatic style with a perfect record of 22 wins from 22 had the chance to finish the season with a league and cup double when they faced league runners up Sale Vikings in the league cup final at Macclesfield.

Having beaten Sale 50-0 & 41-3 in 2 league games, pre match hopes were high that the Beagles were going to complete the double however the announcement of the Sale side containing 5 of their Nat one first team including club Captain Andrew Hughes raised more than an eyebrow meaning this was always going to be a very tough game for the Port lads.

With kick off pushed back to 3-30 to allow time for some of the Sale lads to learn the Second team calls it was to be Port who struck first on a rock hard Priory Park pitch.

Stockport came flying out of the blocks taking the game to Sale. A text book catch and drive from the pack created the pressure on the Sale line for scum half James Singleton who reversed the play to pick out wing Gaz Thomas to put Port into an early 5-0 lead. Minutes later Kenzie Leach increased the score to 8-0 with a well struck penalty. Then came the pivotal moment of the game when Port lost both second rows Lawrence Hiney & James Shaw within minutes of each other to make mission tough now mission impossible but try telling that to the Beagles who refused to lie down and midway through the half registered their second try of the day through everyone’s favourite shire horse Andy Broadhurst whose display of power left everyone wondering what he’d had for breakfast!

The next score went to Sale who started their comeback when they managed to cross the whitewash for the first time in 3 outings to reduce the score to 12-7. Kenzie Leach added another 3 points before Sale scored their second try of the day before Kenzie closed out the half with another penalty to see Port leading 18-14 at half time.

The second half started with Sale growing into the game, and with having had 40 minutes of getting to know each other they finally started to click and it came as no surprise when they scored their third try to take the lead. Port though refused to lie down and No 8 Owen McPherson who proved such a thorn in the Sale side all day looked to have put Stockport back in front after a brilliant pick up from the base of the scrum, diving over the line only for the try to be ruled in touch.

With the Port lads clearly tiring Sales big guns started to dictate the play and for the first time in the most brilliant of seasons the lads were forced to chase the game but it wasn’t to be as Sale racked up 3 further tries to see them run out deserved 43-18 winners.

Man of the match for Port was a close run thing between hooker Andy Broadhurst whose perfect lineout throwing and charging runs put the Beagles on the front foot for large parts of the game but the fact Sale supporters were saying we’d put a ringer in at Number 8 should tell you how well Owen McPherson playing in his 16th game of the season for the Beagles played and rightly takes the MoM for another brilliant display for the Beagles. There is no doubt if Owen could find the club on Tuesday & Thursday night he would be a first team regular!

What a game, what a final, massive thanks to Sale for giving the lads the opportunity to play against players of that calibre, the lads could not have given more but the difference in class at the end was too much even for the Beagles.