Bradford Salem grateful to stand-in skipper against Goole

The victory leaves them four points clear at the summit of Regional Two North East, after title rivals Rochdale lost a thriller 29-28 at home to Pontefract.

Brown, who was leading the side in the absence of Christian Baines, scored three trademark tries from five-metre catch and drives to save Salem from what would have been a surprising defeat to a team lying second-bottom of the table.

While Goole gave the league leaders a real scare and raised their game impressively, Salem's cause was not helped by the fact that they picked up four yellow cards during the 80 minutes.

It meant that they had to play nearly half the game with either 14 or 13 players on the field, and better sides than Goole might have punished them decisively.

A big tackle in the opening play led to a three-minute injury delay and the loss of a Goole player, with Salem perhaps lucky only to concede a penalty.

However, referee Josh Walker was not so lenient a couple of minutes after the resumption of play, as he sent visiting prop Isaac Lickley to the sin-bin for a swinging arm.  

In the 10 minutes they were down to 14 men, Salem were twice held up over the line but as soon as Lickley returned to the fray, a well-timed inside pass from Tom Cummins sent Adrea Vasuitoga sprinting over for a try.

Full-back Harry Williams added the extras to give the visitors a 7-0 lead after 18 minutes.

However, Vasuitoga, who had just returned from a six-week absence due a pulled hamstring, later had to leave the field with a worrying knee injury, Byron Lisle replacing him on the left wing.

Goole soon hit back and after a period of intense pressure on the visiting try line, they forced their way over courtesy of Will Townend to reduce the arrears to 7-5.

Brown's first try 10 minutes later extended the away side’s lead to 12-5, but they then suffered a double blow as both Ben Whitaker and Jake Green were yellow carded for high tackles.

Jake Green was one of the four players yellow carded for Bradford Salem on Saturday, as they nearly fell to a shock defeat against Goole. (Image: LDR Photography.)

With a two-man advantage, Goole piled on the pressure and they scored a second try from close range through Charlie Walton before a penalty from Rhys Moore gave them a slender 13-12 lead at the break.

Salem went back in front eight minutes into the second half courtesy of Brown's second try, which Williams improved for a 19-13 lead.

And when the stand-in skipper completed his hat-trick 10 minutes later, with the score now 24-13 and a four-try bonus point in the bag, the Bradford high-fliers might have expected to run away with the game.

Plucky Goole, however, had other ideas and when left winger Sam Wood latched on to a pin-point cross kick from fly half Shaun Roberts, the hosts were back to within a score at 24-18.

With the vociferous home supporters sensing a huge upset, a tense finish was now in prospect.

With time ticking away, it took a great cover tackle from Lisle to prevent Goole from scoring but, despite Pauli Pauli becoming the fourth Salem player to be yellow carded, the visitors managed to close out victory to keep themselves at the summit.