Salford Red Devils completed a first league double over St Helens since 1980 with an outstanding team performance in Round 15.
The Salford Community Stadium hosted its annual Armed Forces Appreciation game, with the crowd-favourite field cannon and an incredible Red Devils Parachute Display delivering the match ball in some style.
Paul Rowley named an unchanged starting thirteen, but there was space for King Vuniyayawa on the interchange bench in place of Harvey Wilson.
The visitors were the first on the board, however. A fumble from Chris Hankinson allowed Saints the chance to strike and it was James Bell who found the gap from Jack Welsby’s grubber to slam down under the posts.
Salford picked themselves up and it wasn’t long before the scores were level.
A really neat short side play, with Joe Mellor and Shane Wright playing a one-two, before the former flicked a perfect pass to send Deon Cross over in the corner.
The Reds began to win the battle for territory and Sneyd spotted another gap in the back field. Nene Macdonald chased down the kick, but was impeded and the referee awarded Salford a penalty.
Sneyd called for the tee, but his kick drifted wide to Chris Atkin, who took it out of the air and scored. However, the referee blew for a penalty straight away, as our number seven had indicated he would be taking a shot at goal and the rule states he cannot deliberately kick it elsewhere.
It was deja vu for the Reds minutes later, who took the lead with the exact same move that sealed the two points against Warrington Wolves a week prior.
Sneyd’s magic boot again sent a chipped kick into the left corner and put it on a plate for Cross to catch, and score his second of the afternoon.
The second-half started with both sides going set-for-set, waiting for the other to make an error.
Saints would do just that when Curtis Sironen’s hard line was met by a Salford wall, which resulted in him spilling the ball into Kallum Watkins’ path.
A fabulous offload by the back-rower saw Nene Macdonald charging, unopposed towards the try-line, but the referee pulled back the play for a forward pass.
From that, the visitors began to build pressure, and Sironen atoned for his earlier error by barging his way through the Salford defence and – with Mark Percival’s conversion – handed Saints the lead.
In such a back and forth contest, it was not long later that Salford hit back with a response.
Sneyd again with the cross-field kick opened Saints up, with Macdonald managing to knock the ball back into Watkins’ grasp.
He collected the ball and charged through everything in his path – including teammate Ethan Ryan – before producing an immaculate diving finish on Saints’ right edge.
That made the scores 14-12, but a high tackle 40 metres out allowed Percival to nudge over a penalty-goal and bring us level once more.
From the kick-off, Saints made good metres upfield and a bobbling ball spilled backwards off a Salford hand and into the path of Sironen, who fed Percival to go crashing over.
It was a try which could have decided the contest, but the spirit of this team kept the game alive, and one last lightning break cut the Saints apart.
Quick hands from centre-field, all the way to Macdonald allowed the centre to rampage down the right edge before flicking the ball to Ethan Ryan.
The winger fixed Waqa Blake and sent an inch-perfect pass to Chris Hankinson, who was in support to apply the finish and send the Salford faithful into raptures.
After a short break, the Reds are back in action against Hull FC at the Salford Community Stadium, on Blue Light Appreciation Day.
MATCH FACTS:
Salford line-up: Chris Hankinson, Ethan Ryan, Nene Macdonald, Tim Lafai, Deon Cross, Chris Atkin, Marc Sneyd, Brad Singleton, Joe Mellor, Shane Wright, Sam Stone, Kallum Watkins, Ollie Partington.
Interchanges: Loghan Lewis, Joe Shorrocks, King Vuniyayawa, Gil Dudson. Nathan Connell
Tries: Deon Cross (2), Kallum Watkins, Chris Hankinson.
Conversions: Marc Sneyd (2/5)
St Helens line-up: Jack Welsby, Jon Bennison, Konrad Harrell, Mark Percival, Waqa Blake, Moses Mbye, Lewis Dodd, George Delaney, Daryl Clark, Matty Lees, Curtis Sironen, Sione Mata’utia, James Bell
Interchanges: Agnatius Paasi, Ben Davies, Sam Royal, Noah Stephens
Tries: James Bell, Curtis Sironen, Mark Percival.
Conversions: Mark Percival (3/4)
HT: 10-6
