Vale of Lune collected five points from their NW1 match with Blackburn on Saturday.

Vale of Lune climbed from ninth to seventh in the NW1 table with a 31-24 win over Blackburn on Saturday, writes BARRY LEES.

With both sides lying together in the NW1 table, a close game was predicted and the form book went out of the window before swiftly coming back in.

Within a minute of the initial whistle, Blackburn burned through all tacklers to strike at the Vale line where desperate defending kept them out by millimetres.

Vale came back strongly from that wake-up call with the half-back pairing of Alex Briggs and Billy Swarbrick at the core of their newly-found dominance.

Errors resulted in a penalty kick for Jamie Mayall, which he sent over to settle the nerves.

A slick move across from the right flank to the left then put winger Isaac Cook in for his first Vale try.

Mayall kept the kicks coming, including another conversion after Sam Wallbank battered his way over for Vale’s second try.

Another thrusting phase on the right edge of the field resulted in a try for Ben McGarvey, Mayall converting to make it 24-0.

The restart went Vale’s way as before, with Damon Hall finding a space in the Blackburn 22 and darting through it to score under the posts.

Vale were rampant and seemed unstoppable but, just as it seemed that Blackburn were all out of ideas, they made some changes of their own and the game turned around with surprising results.

The fluent passing game lacking in the first half kicked in to earn Blackburn ground and confidence.

A try on the left appeared to be mere consolation but their next try looked more serious.

With the score at 31-14, Wallbank’s yellow card made it harder for Vale to keep out Blackburn.

Two more tries in the right corner narrowed the gap further but Vale held out with dogged defending as their visitors smelled a memorable victory.

The final whistle brought relief to the home support as Vale secured five league points and Blackburn two.

Vale take a break on Saturday with their next league fixture at old rivals Bowdon on November 21 (2.15pm).

Vale of Lune: Fowler, Bradshaw, Crompton, Sutcliffe, Wallbank, Lashley, Walton, Ayrton, Swarbrick, Briggs, McGarvey, Mayall, Dorrington, Cook, Hall. Replacements: Clifton, Procter, McFarlane, Dokter.