Yarnbury 15, Bradford Salem 3 This was a day to remember for Yarnbury and an afternoon to forget for Bradford Salem.

Only four weeks ago the teams had met in a Yorkshire Two match, again at Brownberrie Lane, and Yarnbury had stormed into a 22-0 lead by half-time, only to concede 52 unanswered points.

But this time things were very different as Yarnbury proved the better of two depleted sides to reach the Shield quarter-finals.

And Salem’s poor afternoon in the gloom was only made worse by the shoulder injury to skipper Kris Fal-wasser that could keep him out for three weeks and the extraordinary sight of Rom-anian second row Alex Savin walking off the pitch in the second half.

“I am pleased,” said Yarnbury’s coach Bob Hood. “We had two lads making their debuts – James Rich in the second row and Jack Butler in the back row – a scrum half playing in the back row and Graham Maycock playing out of position on the wing.”

The experienced Hood, still scratching his head over what happened a month ago, said: “Salem had some players out too but we executed very well.

“We could not get hold of the ball for long periods but played a very aggressive defensive game.

“The referee (Doug Chapman) had a good game – he is an ex-panel referee.”

This was Yarnbury’s first win in six matches since they beat Ripon at home in the league on October 15, and their long-time coach Hood laughed: “I was going to resign if we had lost.”

But he added: “If we had played last week at Selby like we did here we would have won.

“We have three or four players returning next week at home to Barnsley but they are going to find it difficult to get into the team after a performance like this – the way Jack Butler played, he will be playing next week.”

Salem fans were left disgruntled when Savin walked off in the 64th minute after a team-mate’s instructions in a scrum had apparently tipped him over the edge. One supporter said: “He should never play for us again.”

But Salem’s first-team manager Neil Klenk was in a more forgiving mood, saying: “It is difficult for Alex because of the language barrier but we have told him that what he did was unacceptable.

“He just gets frustrated, he sees flaws in others and reacts.”

Salem seemed rudderless in the second half and were almost on the point of falling out with each other but Klenk explained: “We were without our three leaders in Simon Davies, Kris Falwasser and Dave Hutton, and it did show in that we lacked a bit of direction.”

In light that wasn’t good to start with, Yarnbury were lively in the opening five minutes and it needed a fine run down the right wing by Danny Thomas to relieve the pressure, prop Craig Buxton supporting him well.

Salem then had so much pressure in Yarnbury’s left-hand corner that it seemed inevitable that they would score. However, the hosts somehow held out and took the lead in the 11th minute when Mark Barlow was offside in front of Salem’s posts, Carl Paterson landing the kick.

Scrum half Mark Dixon crossed in the 26th minute, darting over after threatening to pass to the left wing, and Paterson added a superb touchline conversion.

Falwasser went off injured before half-time, Damien Pearson replacing him and taking the armband, but Salem weren’t able to spend enough time in Yarnbury territory in the second half.

Barlow landed a 45th-minute penalty when the home side were pinged for not rolling away in the tackle, only for Salem’s hopes to be extinguished in the 73rd minute when replacement Stuart Wilson scored, Pater-son’s conversion attempt hitting a post and bouncing out.