Salford were flying high going into Round 22 having beaten the Champions St Helens 44-12 but they were soundly beaten away by Leeds 34-14 in a game which saw them surrender their spot in the top six which they’d only just clawed their way to.
Leeds instead leapfrogged them into the play-off spots and a win for the Rhinos on Friday night saw them open up a three point lead on Salford, opponents Hull KR and Hull FC who are set to take on St Helens this weekend.
Thus Salford needed to win to stay in touch with the play-off spots but that seemed like a tough ask after a damning defeat and with third place Huddersfield in town.
But a scintillating first half from the Red Devils sent them down the road to victory as they stormed into a 26-6 halftime lead with tries from Ken Sio, Joe Burgess, Ryan Brierley, Kallum Watkins and Tim Lafai.
Though the second half was less impressive losing it 10-7, it was sufficient to win 33-16 this afternoon.
After the game Paul Rowley, assistant Kurt Haggerty and key man Marc Sneyd spoke to the press with Rowley describing the win as fully deserved as he said: “We fully deserved the win against a top side in Huddersfield. I couldn’t be happier.”
Meanwhile, his assistant Haggerty noted the difference between the fast start Salford made today and the costly start Salford made at Headingley last week as they trailed 18-0 early due to tries from Harry Newman, Richie Myler and Rhyse Martin.
He said: “Our start today was massive. You look at Leeds last week when we was 18-0 down and that cost us.”
Lastly, Marc Sneyd identified another key spell in the game: the 20 minutes after halftime where Salford hung in there showing the necessary character to maintain their lead and win to close the gap on sixth back down to one-point.
“That 20 minute period where things could have gone wrong, we stuck in there. We had to control and manage the game.”
Sneyd: “That 20 minute period where things could have gone wrong, we stuck in there. We had to control and manage the game.”
💪 #TogetherStronger | 🔴👹
— Salford Red Devils 👹 (@SalfordDevils) August 13, 2022
