Clifton's treble dreams are still alive after they staged a recovery to progress to the EDF Energy Intermediate Cup semi-finals.

Trailing 17-8 to underdogs and Wakefield-based Sandal just after half time, the Bristol team finished strongly with replacement forwards Sam Wilkes and John Levis inspiring the fightback.

Clifton are now one match away from a Twickenham final. They also lead South West One and are in the Charles Saunders Combination Cup semi-finals.

Director of rugby Darren Lloyd said: "It's brilliant to be through to the semi-finals and be one game from Twickenham in a national cup.

"It is very exciting. The club has not been in three competitions for god knows how long."

Clifton will know the identity of their semi-final opponents today but could face another trip to Yorkshire with Sheffield Tigers still in the competition.

The other teams through to the last four include Gloucestershire outfit Hartpury College, while Portsmouth against Dudley Kingswinford is being played on Saturday.

Clifton's chances of progressing to the semi-finals looked bleak on 47 minutes when hooker Sam Tee went under the posts and Greg Wood converted to stretch the hosts' lead to 17-8.

The visitors had opened the scoring when wing Rob Viol touched down on two minutes but they blew several chances to kill off their opponents.

Sandal seized their first real opportunity to hit back on nine minutes, full-back Tom Coad passing out of the tackle for wing Simon Hall to score a well-worked converted try.

Clifton's first 50 minutes was error strewn, penalty ridden – but they were lucky not to concede points when lock Darren Barry was sin binned for not releasing on 31 minutes.

Wood landed a penalty as Barry spent 10 minutes off the field.

But, after Tee's try, the half belonged to Clifton.

Hooker Wilkes and No 8 Levis came off the bench to beef up the pack.

Player-coach John Barnes replied with a penalty on 54 minutes, adding to his first-half effort, before flanker Graham Hardy went over after a quickly taken tap penalty four minutes later. Barnes' conversion put the visitors back in front.

Clifton missed another guilt-edged opportunity on 61 minutes when centre Andy Bell's break was superbly supported by Rob White but the prop failed to see wing Ollie Sills free on the left wing and was tackled 10 metres short.

Barnes nudged his side further ahead with a 64th minute penalty and added the extras from wide-out after wing Viol squeezed over in the corner.

The fly-half wasn't finished. He slotted a 79th minute drop goal before Sandal's frustrations got the better of them with replacement hooker Ashley Norbury yellow carded in injury time for crashing into Sills after a kick.