Guisborough 38, Bradford Salem 22

Bradford Salem were knocked out of the Yorkshire Shield at the second-round stage at high-flying Northumberland and Durham side Guisborough.

Salem always knew it would be a difficult trip, and the writing was on the wall when Guisborough broke through several would-be tacklers straight from the kick off.

The home side launched a series of attacks in the opening minutes and their efforts were rewarded when a good off-load following a strong midfield break resulted in a try under the posts to give the hosts an early 7-0 lead.

Salem then began to put some patterns together and should have scored when Sam Dunn showed great strength to break through the Guisborough defence.

However, the opportunity was missed when the young centre was hauled down short of the line after he chose to go himself rather than use the clear overlap outside him.

Salem continued to press but had to be content with a penalty from full back Danny Belcher, which brought the score to 7-3.

At this point, Salem were on top, and, after some fine handling in the backs, Belcher was in support to score a try which he improved himself to put the visitors ahead 8-7.

The Bradford side were now playing with increasing confidence and they increased their lead to 15-7 when Kiwi hooker Marc Gibbons bumped off two Guisborough players to crash over the line for his first try for the club.

Unfortunately, Salem were unable to maintain the pressure for the remainder of the half, and, after a prolonged period of attack, Guisborough forced their way over the line to reduce the arrears to 15-14 at the break.

Playing into the elements in the second half, Salem were always going to find it tough going but after absorbing an early onslaught, they scored the try of the game when Dunn finished off a brilliant counter-attacking move started from inside their own 22 to take his side into a 22-14 lead.

Handicapped by injuries to centre Sam Savage and second-rower John Morrell, Salem found themselves defending for the remainder of the game and the large Guisborough side gradually started to get on top.

They got back to within a point at 22-21 when they bagged a converted score from a driving maul and a penalty took them into a 24-22 lead.

The home side then started to turn the screw and they went further ahead by 31-22 after some punishing running from the Guisborough forwards got them over the line for their fourth try.

Salem were unlucky to concede another try when 17-year-old winger Alex Wood, who otherwise had an excellent game on his debut, failed to gather a high kick on his own line, and the ball fell kindly for the home side to gift them a score.

Then, in the final play of the game, Salem looked certain to score a consolation try when fly half Andy Robinson broke clear after a selling an outrageous dummy.

However, after he drew the final defender, the normally dependable Belcher spilled the scoring pass and Guisborough ran out winners by the rather flattering margin of 38-22.