A few weeks ago, looking at the fixture list and seeing Saint Helens coming to town, you could have been forgiven for not being overly optimistic as a Salford fan. Now though with back to back victories, a performance that Ian Watson labelled one of the best in three years and the Saints slipping up against Wakefield, there seems a new found optimism around the club and fans.
With The 38-4 demolition of Trinity fresh in the minds, Salford will be keen to press on with their performances and keep up the intensity they showed across nearly all the game on Friday last week.
With Rob Lui injured, however, Ian Watson will have to rely heavily on Jack Littlejohn as his only true half and hoping Mark Flanagan and Tyrone McCarthy can step up and provide some pivots as they did so ably last time out.
Saints in contrast have few injury concerns ahead of Thursday’s match, however the absence of James Roby could be important and is an area that Watto could potentially target.
Let’s look at those critical areas of the pitch that could make the difference in the head to heads:
Wood/Littlejohn V Fages/Smith
The Lui / Littlejohn axis was developing week on week, for Salford, but due to Rob Lui’s injury during the Wakefield game, it meant Wood and Flanagan doing a lot of work in the halves. It appeared that because of this, Littlejohn thrived on the opportunity and had his best game since arriving at the start of the season. Let’s hope his confidence continues into this match and Wood and other pivots can rely on him to control the game.
Give any team in super league room to play and you’ll be in a lot of trouble. This is no different for top scorers and league leaders St Helens.
They have creativity all over the field, but the Salford defence cannot allow former Red Devils’ Matty Smith or Theo Fages any time or space on the ball, otherwise it could be a long evening for Salford players and fans alike.
Big Ben v Amor.
Ben Nakubuwai had another great performance last week, running hard and straight and barely missing a tackle. Salford will need every bit of that performance and more should they wish to get anything from this match. This area in particular is somewhere they have competed fiercely with any all all super league clubs so far this season and is one part of the field that they may have the edge this Thursday.
Kyle Amor got his name on the scoresheet for Saints last week during their hammering of Huddersfield Giants. As with many in this confident Saints side, he is keen to offload when he sees an opportunity and this is something that Salford’s pack will need to nullify if they want to get something out of the game.
Evalds v Barba
With Gareth O’Brien gone, Niall Evalds has become an automatic first on the team sheet. His calmness under the high ball and his defensive positioning has been very impressive all season even during the losses he’s looked solid. He will be severely tested again on Thursday, the expectation on him to perform is testament to how much his game has improved over the last 2 seasons.
It’s not an understatement to say that Ben Barba has lit up Super league so far this season. His brace of tries during Saints last outing could have been 4 or 5 such was their dominance during the game. His breathtaking speed and acceleration will be something that concern the Salford coaching staff and it will clearly be something they will have worked on this week in training. Can he be blunted?
Last 6 games head to head
Form guide
On paper, the power and creativity of St Helens should be more than a match for The Red Devil’s, however they’ve shown against Wakefield that they can be vulnerable in defence and you can be certain Ian Watson has been studying the weaknesses and will be hoping to exploit them. This factor alongside the good recent form, performances and hopefully a large and loud following from the Salford faithful and they could power their way to victory! Come on Salford!
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