Spartans belied their lowly early season league position by hitting Burntwood for four first half tries to take them to their first league win of the campaign.
The hosts, who used all three replacements by half time, did well to only concede one more try after the turnaround.
The contest looked like being a try-fest for both sides as the hosts led 7-5 after just 5 minutes but the pace and handling of the visitors earned them a bonus point before the break whilst their solid defence stemmed any further comeback.
Spartans went into the lead on three minutes, the back row breaking from halfway to put the outside centre over in the left corner.
Burntwood hit back immediately from the restart. Line out possession was moved into midfield by Matt Sishton before the ball was passed back out to the left for Rob Cartwright, skipper for the day in the absence of Graham Shelley, to crash over. Matt Wood converted superbly from the touchline.
The visitors re-took the lead six minutes later with an easy penalty goal awarded for handling on the floor.
Burntwood’s defence, frantic at times, kept Spartans out until the 22nd minute. They then broke down the blind side of a scrum from the home 22 for an easy try.
Then, straight from the restart, Spartans scored again. They linked well to reach the home line although Burntwood were guilty of slipping off first up tackles.
On the half hour mark, Burntwood almost got back into it, stretching the visitors’ defence right then left, but eventually the ball was knocked clear and a counter attack had Burntwood defending five metres off their own line.
That was the pattern up till close to half time with both sides mounting promising attacks but turnovers proving costly. Finally, Spartans broke from halfway out for their full back to speed in under the posts for an easily converted try.
The hosts made a determined start to the second period despite re-shuffling their line up due to injuries to Jack Neale, Matt Wood and Mark Poole – Dave Peplow, Adam Slater and Ollie Whitehouse coming on as replacements.
The only points of the second half came on the hour mark. A backs move on their own 22 released the Spartans full back whose pace proved too much for the home defence again and he crossed under the posts for another converted try.
Poole was required to come back on for the injured Tony Davies but when he took another knock after 32 minutes the home side were down to 14.
However, they enjoyed the better of the time remaining. Whitehouse set up good field position with a run through midfield. Spartans infringed to keep themselves pinned in their own 22. They lost a flanker to a yellow card but the nearest Burntwood came to scoring were two drives for the line which both came up just short.
This Saturday (October 29) Burntwood travel to Leek for a SSE Midlands 2 West North fixture while the 3rds host St Leonards 2nds at The Sportsway – kick-off 3pm.
