Sale continued their impressive start to the Premiership campaign tonight as fly-half Niki Little inspired an emphatic victory over Bristol.

Little bagged 26 points from a try, five penalties and three conversions, leaving Bristol a demoralised outfit.

The home side never seriously threatened Sale's supremacy, and player-coach Dean Ryan now has an early-season crisis on his hands following three defeats from four starts.

Sale, seeking their third win of the season over West Country opposition, started brightly, but saw Little's opening penalty attempt bounce off both posts before Bristol cleared possession.

The Fijian, having spearheaded victories over Bath and Gloucester through his precision goalkicking, then stung Bristol with an 11th-minute try.

Little ghosted through a flat-footed defence, touching down and then adding the conversion as Bristol struggled to impose any authority on proceedings.

Sale back-row forwards Alex Sanderson and Pete Anglesea made considerable territorial gains from lapse Bristol tackling, yet the visitors were undone by a soft try on 24 minutes.

The heavyweight home pack rolled relentlessly towards Sale's line, and Scottish international Jamie Mayer scored when skipper Agustin Pichot's quickfire pass set up the centre's close-range burst.

Fly-half Gareth Bowen converted, but two further Little penalties allowed Sale breathing space as they led 13-7 at half-time.

While Pichot displayed some brilliant touches, his hot-headed indiscipline undermined Bristol's attempt to reduce the deficit.

He relished the physical exchanges, but couldn't handle coming off second best, repeatedly making verbal complaints to referee Steve Lander and both touch judges.

Bristol had given themselves enough to do through an inept first-half display, and could have done with Pichot consistently concentrating his efforts on the rugby.

Bowen and Little each kicked two penalties during the third quarter, but errors continued to easily outweigh any entertainment as Bristol battled to reduce a six-point deficit.

Inevitably, the harder they tried, so more mistakes riddled their game, and Sale's second try came from an innocuous-looking situation on halfway.

Bristol were attacking, but the ball ran loose and wing Steve Hanley gathered to sprint clear, leaving Bristol's last defender - lock Ryan - helpless in his slipstream.

Little converted and then booted another penalty after Mayer was sin-binned by Lander for deliberate offside, underlining just how badly the Bristol wheels had fallen off.

Boasting a 29-13 advantage, Sale had the confidence to launch runners - forwards and backs - from all angles, while comfortably coping with anything Bristol's limited attacking game could threaten.

Even Sale's 34-year-old full-back Jim Mallinder had the Bristol defence worried, and Lander's final whistle could not arrive quickly enough.

Hanley's fellow wing Steve Davidson completed the rout with a breakaway try six minutes into injury time, Little converting to sum up overwhelming dominance.

Bristol badly need inspiration from somewhere. Sale, meanwhile, continue to enjoy themselves despite being written off by most pundits pre-season.

Man of the match: Niki Little (Sale).