Battling Salford ended their 2017 season with a defeat against St Helens. Paul Whiteside takes you through the action.
Salford's final match of a roller coaster 2017 saw the visit of top four chasing St Helens. The visitors would move up to third with victory. The two sides had met twice already this season with saints breaking Salford hearts 25-24 with a late drop goal last time they met. The Red Devil's supporters had been assured yesterday that a name change was off the agenda, and come full time tonight they could begin thinking about next season.
Salford made a good start to the game with a thrilling Manu Vatuvei break in the early stages. Niall Evalds opened the scoring with a superb try from a set scrum. Great ball movement and the star full back sliced through the saints defence. Gareth O Brien missed the goal 4-0. The Red Devil's started to make mistakes spilling a lot of possession allowing saints to build pressure. Mark Percival levelled the scores in the 18th minute with a well worked try catching kris Welham out in defence.
Salford's discipline started to let them down conceding penalties but their defence was outstanding in the first half an hour of the game. Tyrone McCarthy worked tirelessly in both attack and defence. 6 minutes before half time Alex walmersley stormed over to put saints ahead. Percival added the goal 4-10.
The match then caught fire just before the break when walmersley seemed to elbow Jordan Walne. Referee James Child put the incident on report much to the disgust of the Salford supporters. Seconds later Ryan Lannon was late on Theo Fages. After consulting the touch judges the red card was shown. Percival extended the lead to 4-12 with a penalty goal.
The visitors were then strangely awarded another penalty when it looked like there player Tommy Makinson was the offender. Percival missed the kick at goal 4-12 half time.
Much to Ian Watson's sides credit they continued to match saints set for set. Gareth O Brien kicked a clever 40-20 but saints defence held firm.
The score remained at 4-12 on the hour mark before Salford's heroic defence conceded to Zeb Taia from close range. Percival added the goal to take the game away from the hosts 4-18. Substitute Matty Smith came up with a neat short ball to send Walmersley over for his second try. Percival again converted 4-24.
Salford were now looking tired playing with 12 men and also losing Jordan Walne after the walmersley incident. Jordan failed his head test so Salford were doing it tough with just two substitutes.
Ben Barba completed the scoring with a try two minutes from time to give the score a lob sided look. Percival converted 4-30.
Ian Watson was proud of the efforts of his side tonight speaking after the match. The sending off and the incident just before had a huge bearing on the out come of the game.
So that's it for another season, much improvement from Salford this season. A tough back end of the year where the squad and resources really got tested. Ian Watson's young side will learn from this and I am sure they will be well prepared for next season.
Salford 4 St Helens 30.
Paul Whiteside, Devil in the Detail
No comments:
Post a Comment