Salford Red Devil’s suffered a home defeat last week against Huddersfield Giants. It was a close game with tries from Ken Sio and Dan Sarginson making it a 10 all score line going into the final stage of the game.
Unfortunately for Salford Tui Lolahea missed a chance of a drop goal and to make things worse experienced half back Kevin Brown was sent to the sin bin for a head butt in a tackle on Jordan Turner.
I feel this was a harsh decision for Kevin and Salford, there was contact between Kevin’s head and Jordan Turner but I refuse to believe it was a deliberate act to injure or hurt Jordan Turner.
With Kevin brown off the field Huddersfield had a opportunity to win the game which they eventually did from a penalty under the posts, Ian Watson refused to hit the panic button after the game. Defeat against Huddersfield at home in previous years may have caused a panic situation to grow but under Ian Watson’s stewardship their is a sense of confidence that the players brought in will help improve the team for 2020 so another good season is on the horizon.
A new face arrived at the AJ Bell Stadium this week with Oliver Roberts moving to Salford from Huddersfield on loan for the 2020 season.
The 6,4 forward who was selected to be in the England Knight squad in 2019 and a full Irish international, he has the size and experience to add that extra quality to Ian Watson’s squad.
Roberts who is 25 played for Salfords youth teams upto 2013 before signing for Bradford will be looking to play well to either gain a contract at the AJ Bell next year or for Huddersfield to make him part of their plans again.
Another Salford rugby league player who has made the headlines is local player Jonny Openshaw, a product of Folly Lane he has been selected to train with the England Community Lions ahead of their European Championships later in the year. Openshaw has potential to go a long way in the game and this will help his development. One day he could be pulling on the famous red jersey at the AJ Bell Stadium.
The sad news this week is Salford prop Adam Walker has left the club, a real rough tough forward who gave the pack that nastiness will be missed. Walkers appearance from the subs bench in the Grandfinal gave Salford a 2nd wind which put them back in contention going into half time. It’s safe to say that with 26 appearances and 4 tries will be remembered.
Adam has been out of favour this season so far and a change in his circumstances has resulted in his release. The club has released a statement to say that it will help Adam with this transition, I wish him well in the future.
Salford face Leeds Rhinos at the AJ Bell Stadium on Saturday. Leeds last week put a big score on Hull KR as Salford lost narrowly to Huddersfield both sides will be looking for the win.
With Salford currently enjoying a run of home games it is important this is taken advantage of and Salford pick up points.
Leeds have quality in their squad with ex Man of Steel Luke Gale and ex Salford favourite Rob Lui they have players who can cause Salford real problems.
Salford are a team who are developing, during our run to the Super League Grand Final we faced many challenges which we overcame.
I feel that the extra pressure on us this year going into games like this one will have a positive effect. The players reached great heights in consistency under pressure last season and it will help when playing big games like this one on Saturday.
New faces have come in and given us a extra dimension to our play and it will be exciting to see this squad and team develop over the weeks and months to come.
Pictures by Steve McCormick
Blog by Rob Parkinson
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