By Dark Prophet
April 17 2026

This weekend sees the final away trip of the regular season, with the difficult challenge of facing Sale FC at Heywood Road.

Lying in fourth, The Dogs, despite a good run of late, saw their hopes of achieving a play-off spot being extinguished after a heavy defeat to title contenders Blackheath last weekend. However, they remain unbeaten at home since October. With Blackheath having two relatively comfortable games remaining, Albion need to secure all 5 points to maintain their second place and home advantage in the play-offs and remain with an outside chance of taking the Title.

In the reverse fixture, Albion struggled to overcome The Dogs having fallen behind 3-14 within 15 minutes before coming out 24-14 on top. Historically, Albion have found The Dogs to be difficult opposition, particularly away. It was only last season where they secured an impressive 26-46 win on the road that they beat The Dogs on their own ground.

The Dogs tend to start poorly becoming most effective in the third quarter, before fading for the final quarter when they become most vulnerable.

To date, Albion have scored 133 (average 5.5 per game) tries whilst conceding 76 (3.2) The Dogs' tallies are 119 (5.0) scored and 79 (3.3) conceded. Nearly half of The Dogs' tries have been scored by the forwards, in the main shared between the front row, locks and flankers. Among the backs they pose a threat throughout the line. Defensively, things are different with a mean set of forwards offering little. The backs are a different story, and have conceded over 70% of tries, mostly through the centres and the wings but other positions offer opportunities.

The Dogs will likely look to keeping the ball away from Albion's backs as much as possible. They will deploy a lot of pick & go tactics, but won't be adverse to sending the ball out wide. Albion's best opportunities will arise from playing an open game and looking for deficiencies in the defensive line - A forwards game would be hard work and may not provide the number of Scores Albion require.

The referee will be Ben Rayner. This season Mr Rayner has issued 11 cards in 13 games, making him one of the more lenient to have officiated in NL1. The experienced referee has overseen Albion once at the fixture away to Rams, no cards were issued, and Albion won comfortably 15-34. The Dogs have yet to meet Mr Rayner. Hopefully there will be no cards issued as both sides have good disciplinary records.

Player to watch: Joseph Green - the scrum half scored both of the Dogs' tries against Albion earlier this season and has 6 to date.

Weather: Dry with sunny intervals. A gentle breeze with strong gusts will blow the length f the pitch from the Clubhouse end.

Prediction: Albion win but may not get the bonus point.

Other games of note:

Sedgley Park (13th) v Rotherham Titans (1st} - A loss for the Tigers will condemn them to relegation. Rotherham likely to secure 5 points.

Leeds Tykes (9th) v Blackheath (3rd} - Probably a win for Blackheath, but the Tykes have thrown up a couple of surprises this season.

Leicester Lions (14th) v Dings Crusaders (10th} - A BP win for Dings, will secure safety. Otherwise a win and Mose dropping a point will suffice.

Clifton (12th) v Birmingham Moseley (11th} - A close encounter in the battle for the play off place. Neither side showing good form of late but Clifton could edge it.

Round 25: Sale FC v Plymouth Albion Preview

Discussion started by Unofficial Plymouth Albion (IP Logged), 17/04/2026 13:55

Unofficial Plymouth Albion
17/04/2026 13:55

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Igwok Dominus
18/04/2026 17:39

In a word - @#$%&!

My body is a temple - I desecrate it every day

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