DESPITE a spirited fightback, Bradford Salem were unable to recover from a dreadful start, going 21-0 down at Dinnington in Yorkshire One before they had even touched the ball.

A fourth try in the opening 20 minutes saw them go further behind, before they recovered some pride to only lose 45-26.

Dinnington won possession from their own kick off when Salem skipper Christian Baines collided with team-mate Rhys Green, before a string of penalties got the hosts to within striking distance.

After electing to go for a scrum rather than a kick at goal, scrum-half Neil Francis sniped over from close range.

Matt Booth’s restart didn’t go 10 metres, and, from the resultant scrum, the ball was moved out to winger Jaiden Peters, who stormed over in the corner.

Booth was again penalised from kick-off and after a sustained period of pressure, centre Alex Rimmington cut a great angle to score under posts.

Salem then won a scrum against the head but the reprieve proved short-lived as an error gave Peters the opportunity to race in for his second.

Fly-half Jonny West converted all four tries to give the hosts a healthy lead.

Salem finally got going, with free-scoring flanker Nick Fontaine on hand to score an excellent converted try.

But another Salem mistake gifted their opponents field position, which eventually led to Simon Bunting bulldozing over to make it 35-7 at the break.

The contest was effectively ended when Rimmington intercepted a loose pass to score and put Dinnington 40-7 ahead.

Salem refused to throw in the towel, and teenage winger Morgan Mirzaali cut through to score a try, with Booth reducing the arrears to 40-14.

They were reduced to 14 men when winger Jake Green was sent to the bin, and, to add their woes, Dinnington skipper Ryan Donnelly took an attempted tap down from a lineout near the Salem line to go over for a try, despite suspicions of offside.

Prop Jordan Ashworth was also lost to the bin, but Salem finished well, as Baines scored a fine try from a catch and drive to bring the score back to 45-19.

Salem then scored the try of the game to earn themselves a bonus point, as Max Trueman burst out from his own 22 before outpacing the cover defence for a great individual score.

Booth added the extras, but it was all too little too late.