Bradford Salem 17, York 22 Depleted Bradford Salem put in a spirited display against fifth-placed York but could not find the elusive score during a second-half comeback that would have taken them to a deserved win.

The Heaton side – missing eight regulars due to injuries and unavailability – started the game in positive mood and their pack gained excellent territory after a series of driving mauls.

They were soon camped on the York line and, after a few close calls, referee Brian Mulligan awarded Salem a penalty try when York stopped a certain touchdown in bringing down a rolling maul.

Fly half Ian Woodwiss kicked the simple conversion to give the home side an early 7-0 lead.

The turning point in the game came on the half-hour mark when Mulligan harshly sent second rower John Morrell to the sin-bin after he was guilty of going in from the side.

Whilse Salem were down to 14 men, the visitors ran in three unanswered tries to go ahead 17-7 by half-time.

To their credit, Salem came out fighting in the second half and a monumental tackling display from New Zealand No 8 Kris Falwasser got them on the front foot.

Salem worked their way into their opponents’ 22 and, after sucking in the York defence, the ball was moved wide to enable full back Chris Savva to stroll over the line.

Woodwiss improved the score to make it 17-14.

Refereeing decisions started to go against the Heaton side and, in their first visit into Salem’s half, York scored in the left-hand corner, although there was a suspicion of a foot in touch.

Full back Dawes, who was having an off-day with the boot, missed the touchline conversion but the visitors were 22-14 ahead.

Woodwiss cut the deficit to five points with a penalty but, despite spending long periods deep in the visitors’ territory in the final quarter, a number of unforced errors when in scoring postions proved costly and York weathered the storm.