Though spring was suddenly in the Stockport air on a glorious sunlit afternoon, all around Edgeley Park the chill wind of dropping out of the Guinness Premiership tightened its icy grip around the club as the Sharks slumped to an eighth successive defeat.
Just to compound matters with Leeds recording their third win on the bounce across the Pennines against Saracens, it meant for the first time since turning professional Sale found themselves rock bottom, two points adrift of Worcester albeit with a game in hand.
Its a sobering statistic and quite a fall from grace for a club that were English champions less than four years ago.
The irony, however, is that had Kingsley Jones' displayed this sort of passion and commitment against either Leeds or Gloucester over the last fortnight they wouldn't be now in such dire straits.
Dominating
Instead, they had the misfortune to be facing the form team in England right now who, to be frank, should have been out of sight by half-time after completely dominating the opening 40 minutes.
But despite their perilous plight, director of rugby Jones insisted that with seven games still to play - effectively a third of the league season - Sale still possess the wherewithal to mount a survival special.
"I've been at the club six years and I've been at the top for much of that time and that's easy. This is now where we start to find out about people," declared Jones.
"Its tough at the bottom but I believe if we keep improving the performance as we did today we'll get out of this.
Better
"I thought the overall display was much better. We created opportunities but we didn't take them which, ultimately, is the difference in the Premiership.
"There's no quick fix. The owner Brian Kennedy spoke with everybody both before and after the game but though we're all bitterly disappointed at where we are, in terms of the performance I know that Brian and the other owners will be a lot happier than they have been over the past fortnight.
"We can look at the league and its not a pretty picture but realistically if we win our game in hand we'll leapfrog up the league. So the last thing we need to do is panic. There are four or five teams looking at the bottom - not just us. And I think that bottom spot will change places over the next two months.
"There's still a long way to go, we've got seven big challenges coming up - four of them at home - and we're still positive about it."
If nothing else, Sale's defensive spirit came to the fore in a totally one-sided first-half that saw otherwise imperious Saints fly-half Stephen Myler amazingly squander four kickable penalties.
Clearance
Just when Sale thought they would get of jail however, a 39th minute missed penalty clearance by Charlie Hodgson allowed Northampton the time and space to launch a swift counter attack that ended with winger Paul Diggin touching down Myler's deft grubber kick in the left corner, Bruce Reihana - promoted to kicking duties - adding the conversion.
And when another quickfire backs move featuring lightning passes between Chris Ashton, Joe Ansbro and Reihana ended with Ashton scoring a second try on 47 minutes, the roof really could have caved in.
Instead, the Sharks took the fight to their high-flying opponents only for wave after wave of attacks to founder with Hodgson and Nick MacLeod both coming agonisingly close before, belatedly, a fine move sparked by Marika Vakacegu's positive run ended with former Northampton star Ben Cohen crashing home on the left wing with five minutes to go, Hodgson adding a sublime conversion from the left touchline.
With their tails up, Sale launched one final assault and were rewarded with a last minute penalty.
But from 10 metres inside the Saints half, Hodgson's kick agonisingly struck the left upright before bouncing to safety and with it went the Sharks' hopes of a potentially crucial consolation losing bonus point.
Kennedy, Jones and the rest of the Sale squad - not to mention the worried Sharks faithful - will be desperately hoping that missed kick doesn't come back to haunt them come the end of April.
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Nefyn blue, Stockport (08/03/2010 at 17:03)
They have failed to carry out the above. I have never witnessed such a one sided first half as the one on Sunday. The Saints should have been out of sight, how they wer'e not was a complete mystery.
For all the craft coming from Charlie and Dwayne, the failings of the rest, the forwards in particular were painful to watch. Even the obligatory Guiness did not dull the senses.
The team staggered in an uncoordinated fashion from one set piece to another. I say set piece, but I will omit the lineout as there was none to speak of.
Oh dear, so sad to witness.