Stockport second team affectionately known as the Beagles took the Nowirul League One title after an emphatic win over their nearest challenger Sale FC.
The Beagles went into the game on the back of a perfect 19 game winning streak where victory over the visitors would see them claim the league title with two games remaining.

Sale recieved the opening kick off and were met with a forceful tackle from centre Gaz Thomas which set the tone for the day.
In a pulsating first half Sale gave us good as they got and put the Port defence under sustained pressure however they were restricted to a sole 3 points from a penalty after a defensive shut out from the Stockport lads.

Port opened the scoring on 11 minutes with a Kenzie Leach penatly.

Sale replied almost immediately with a penalty of their own after back row Dom Sheratte was yellow carded for a high tackle. With Port down to 14 men the stage looked set for Sale to make their numerical advantage pay however any ambitions from Sale were thwarted on a strong Port scrum preventing them from putting together any sustained pressure.

In a season where we have barely gone 5 minutes without scoring a try it was to be a full 25 minutes before the opening try came courtesy of two excellent breaks from Richard Sackville-West and Zach Eason that found lock James Shaw in his sole contribution of the first half that saw him put wing Oli Wakefield away who beat the last two defenders for an excellent team try with a brilliant touch line conversion from Kenzie Leach.

With the half coming to a close centre Gaz Thomas interecepted a loose pass and broke away to put the Beagles into an invaluable 17-3 lead. From the restart Sale won a penalty and from the ensuing lineout sent the ball infield where they broke the line only for a brilliant cover tackle from fullback Arthur Carrol keeping the Port line intact.

The second half commenced with the introduction of substitute Owen McPherson which in all honestly felt a bit like cheating.
In the first half Sale had dealt very well with the multitude of power runners in the Stockport line up with Eason, Sackville West, Sadler & Burr proving a real handful for the visitors but they now had a fresh Owen to deal with who immediately put Stockport on the front foot with his usual power game.
After a period of sustained pressure the first score of the second half came from a long Dom Sheratte pass that found Oli Wakefield who chipped over his opposite number and regathered the ball for a brilliant try in the corner. The next score was equally as good with a McPherson run which was offloaded to James Singleton who found Kieran Hibbs in support who's legs defied his date of birth when he burst onto the ball before returning the ball inside to Singleton who scored under the posts.

Next up came a try from skipper Matt Blackman who powered through the opposition line after a great lineout from the pack. Seb Valentine then closed the show after the forwards rumbled over from a lineout for an emphatic 41-3 win over our closest challengers.

Full credit to Sale who pushed Port all the way in the toughest half of rugby the boys have faced this season. The introduction at half time of Owen and Shawsy remembering which team he was playing for set the platform for a great second half that saw the boys score 24 unanswered points to take the game and the league title.

Next up is Eccles away in the Cup semi final where Port will be hoping to take another step towards the double!