SALFORD 4 WIDNES 24
Match Report – David Clegg
Salford’s season came to a disappointing end on Friday night, in their final game of the season, and their last as Salford City Reds. Head Coach, Brain Noble, had been keen that the players should finish on a high note as some reward for their loyalty, commitment and effort throughout what would always prove to be a difficult campaign, following the turbulent pre-season they had had to endure. In the event, however, this match proved to be a bridge too far for our players, who looked both mentally and emotionally drained, by the end of the game.
No-one can doubt the effort, which was clearly evident throughout the first half when they dominated totally, as a result of having a much larger slice of possession. For seemingly endless periods, the Reds were camped on their opponents’ line, building wave after wave of pressure but unable to breach the Vikings’ resolute defence. The visitors had clearly done their homework on the City Reds, though, as every time the ball was moved wide, the key players on either flank were picked out and wrapped up by the Widnes player charged with the task. So floundered every promising move, which might have broken the deadlock.
They did eventually cross, however, on 34 mins, when they got some momentum into the attack, took the ball from one end of the field to the other, and a good cross kick from Sneyd was taken on the wing by Broughton. Faced with a pair of defenders between him and the line, he put a chip over their heads, and was just beaten to the touch down by Sneyd, who had followed up his own kick and had had a clearer run to the line. The touchline conversion attempt, from close to the touchline, proved too difficult for him, from the ‘wrong’ side of the field.
A 4-0 half time lead, though not sufficient by any means, did look hopeful, since the amount of work which Widnes had had to put in to repel the Reds’ almost constant pressure ought to have taken an awful lot out of their reserves of energy. It had not, and within two minutes of the restart Widnes had taken the lead. A forty-twenty set them up for an assault on the Salford line which ended with Hanbury cutting through to score close to the posts and Owens’s easy goal kick making it 4-6.
The Salford attempts to regain the lead were repulsed, however, and made the more difficult by an influx of handling errors, which had not been evident in the first half. It was, therefore, Widnes who went on to build on their slender lead, some twenty minutes later , when Danny Williams failed to deal with a kick into the in-goal area. Ah Van took advantage and Owens added the extras to double their score.
Having failed to deal with one Kevin Brown kick, matters were made worse, three minutes later, when Sneyd having seemingly made safe another one, lost the ball in his attempt to get over the line, and Mellor scored from the mistake. Owens’s conversion put Widnes in a commanding position, at 4-18, whilst the Reds’ difficulties were compounded by the loss, through injury of Jodie Broughton, in addition to the halftime withdrawal of Theo Fages.
With two minutes left to play, Ah Van went over again in the corner, and Gareth Hock gave Reds’ fans some indication of his range of skills, by striking the conversion, as straight as a die, between the posts, from wide out, to complete the scoring.
