Ahead of tomorrow’s game at St Helens we take a look down memory lane to a previous Betfred Super League fixture at the Totally Wicked Stadium with stark similarities to this weekend’s.
Alan Hunte’s Salford travelled to St Helens in round eight of the 2013 Super League season and despite the game taking place in late March the pitch was covered in snow.
The conditions made it a difficult affair for both sides with the hosts going into the interval just 6-0 ahead thanks to an Ade Gardner try and a penalty goal from debutant Lewis Charnock.
But, it was St Helens who continued to control the game in the second-half as Francis Meli crossed following a break from now Red Devil Josh Jones. This was alongside two more goals from Charnock to seemingly put the game out of the reach of the Red Devils.
However, Salford almost clawed back a result as Jordan James put half-back Liam Foran through a gap to score before Marc Sneyd made it two quick fire tries for the visitors. A successful conversion narrowed the arrears further but Salford’s winless away run continued.
Salford Interim Head Coach Alan Hunte said: “We were down to the bare bones at the end, but the performance was very pleasing I thought we deserved something.
“Both sides rolled up their sleeves in the conditions and there was little between the teams. They had that little bit of quality to get over the line.
“In the first 10 or 15 minutes of the second half we needed to put pressure on but did not manage to do that and that gave Saints confidence, but I could not ask any more of our guys.”
The teams that day:
St Helens: Wellens; Gardner, Turner, Jones, Meli; Charnock, Wilkin; Perry, Ashe, Puletua, Manu, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Flanagan. Interchanges: Soliola, Clough, Walmsley, Speakman.
Salford: Sneyd; D. Williams, Gleeson, Gibson, Broughton; Fages, Foran; Griffin, Godwin, Neal, Ashurst, Dixon, Wild. Interchanges: Howarth, Nero, Boyle, James.
