Sale director of rugby Philippe Saint-Andre insists his side had achieved their target for the season after securing qualification to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals with a 30-10 win over Newport-Gwent Dragons.
The Sharks made it five wins out of five in this season's competition by completing a bonus-point victory over the patched-up Welsh outfit.
Saint-Andre's side are now five points clear of Munster at the summit of Pool One and can seal top spot - and a home quarter-final - with a win over their Irish rivals at Thomond Park next Saturday.
Mark Cueto (two), Sebastien Chabal and 15-point Charlie Hodgson grabbed Sale's tries although they were not entirely convincing against their game opponents, whose cup aspirations had already fallen by the wayside.
Saint-Andre felt there was room for improvement, but was delighted to have secured progress.
"Our target at the beginning of the season was to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup and with this win, and four tries, we are sure to be at least one of the best-placed runners-up," he said.
"It's one step but if we want to finish top of our group we need to be much, much better next week at Munster.
"We did the job of scoring four tries. We did enough, nothing more. We played well in the first 15 minutes but after that, we made too many mistakes. We know we can play much better."
