Wakefield v Salford Big Match preview
With Castleford’s surprise win over Warrington last weekend Wakefield Trinity are in desperate need of points. Three wins from safety doesn’t sound a lot but when you’ve only won one match out of sixteen things start to look rather ominous.
Trinity coach Mark Applegarth has brought in some new players. The vastly experienced Luke Gale has joined from Championship club Keighley and David Fifita has returned from a stint in Australia. Gale scored a try on his debut last Friday in defeat at Hull Kingston Rovers. Crowd favourite Max Jowitt has returned from a long injury lay off and one player who’s impressed me this season when I’ve watched Trinity is Will Dagger. Having spent time on loan in recent years with York, Featherstone and Leigh, his time at Hull Kingston Rovers is where he learned his trade. After five years on Humberside the twenty four year old from nearby Castleford is a big part of the Wakefield back line,
Salford were comfortably beaten by Wigan on Sunday and have been disappointing in there last two matches. The Red Devils lacked that creative edge. With Brodie Croft, Andy Ackers and now Ryan Brierley our injured coach Paul Rowley has got a bit of organising to do.
For Salford it’s not time to panic. They still sit fifth in the League table but do have some tough fixtures coming up against the teams around them.
On the other hand Wakefield are fighting for every scrap now. They have a mountain to climb to stay in Rugby League’s top flight but one things for sure Trinity won’t give up without a fight.
Super League away record.
Wakefield 18
Draws 1
Salford 4
1999 Wakefield 36 Salford 10
2000 Wakefield 36 Salford 10
2001 Wakefield 32 Salford 22
2001 Wakefield 23 Salford 20
2002 Wakefield 32 Salford 18
2004 Wakefield 21 Salford 20
2004 Wakefield 46 Salford 18
2005 Wakefield 36 Salford 24
2006 Wakefield 18 Salford 36
2007 Wakefield 34 Salford 26
2009 Wakefield 29 Salford 10
2010 Wakefield 36 Salford 6
2011 Wakefield 6 Salford 32
2012 Wakefield 26 Salford 22
2013 Wakefield 23 Salford 23
2014 Wakefield 42 Salford 6
2015 Wakefield 16 Salford 24
2016 Wakefield 32 Salford 18
2017 Wakefield 24 Salford 22
2018 Wakefield 14 Salford 12
2019 Wakefield 33 Salford 22
2020 Wakefield 20 Salford 28 (behind closed doors at Headingley).
2022 Wakefield 30 Salford 24
They played for both.
There have been quite a lot of players who have played for both clubs in the Super League era. Here is a selection of them:
Shane Kenward, Warren Jowitt, Bobbie Goulding, kris Tassell, Martin Moana, Phil Hassan, Michael Korkidas, Darrell Griffin, Josh Griffin, George Griffin, Andy Kirk, Tommy Saxton, Paul White, Sean Gleeson, Ashley Gibson, Ben Gledhill, Jeremy Smith, Stuart Howarth, Greg Johnson, Josh Veivers, Tim Smith, Matty Ashurst, kevin Locke, Jason Walton, Mason Caton Brown, Liam Hood, Ben Jones Bishop, James Hasson, Lee Gaskell and Josh Wood.
A MATCH TO REMEMBER Sunday 10th March 2013.
Wakefield 23 Salford 23.
Looking back at the twenty three occasions we have visited Belle Vue in the summer era the match on Sunday 10th March 2013 was quite a memorable one.
Alan Hunte was standing in as caretaker coach following Phil Veivers sacking a week earlier. After Peter Fox opened the scoring for Wakefield, Salford replied through Jodie Broughton and Lee Jewitt.
The Wildcats hit back through Dean Collis and the sides traded further tries before the break from Salford’s Theo Fages and Wakefield’s Frankie Mariano.
Jack Murphy scored a fourth Salford try before Danny Washbrook and Ben Cockayne scored for Wakefield. Marc Sneyd and Paul Sykes then dropped goals in a tense final quarter. The travelling Supporters finally had something to cheer about after a tough start to the season with some heavy defeats.
On a day when the temperature barely reached zero, Hunte’s young players put in a fantastic performance to warm the hearts of the Salford faithful, with Sneyd and Fages leading the way. As the final hooter sounded it finished Wakefield Trinity 23 Salford City Reds 23.
The teams that day;
Wakefield, Mathers, Fox, Collis, L Smith, Cockayne, Sykes, T Smith, Poore, Aiton, Trout, Lauiti’iti, Mariano, Washbrook.
Subs, Wood, Wilkes, Mellars, Annakin.
Salford, Sneyd, Murphy, Gleeson, Gibson, Broughton, Fages, Foran, D Griffin, Godwin, McPherson, Ashurst, Dixon, Mauro.
Subs, Owen, James, Jewitt, Boyle.
Attendance, 6,986.
Referee, Thierry Alibert.
Friday’s match.
As mentioned previously Paul Rowley will need to make changes. After a very impressive performance playing at fullback after Ryan Brierley went off injured you would expect Ken Sio to be the obvious choice to start at the back. He looked steady under the high ball as well as being very sound in defence.
The pack once again seemed to struggle against Wigan and the previous week in the cup at Hull Kingston Rovers they were over powered. This is a slight concern as you would expect Trinity to be very physical. They are going to come out all guns blazing on Friday night and throw the kitchen sink at Salford.
The Red Devils need to be organised in defence, ready to weather the storm and if they can, they certainly have the pace and know how to post points.
When the two teams met at Salford in March it took two Marc Sneyd drop goals to edge the Red Devils to a 14-13 victory. Point scoring has been a real Achilles heel for Wakefield, in five matches this season they’ve failed to score a point and in a further six games been limited to less than ten points.
Former Trinity coach John Kear who guided them to safety in 2006 left his position at Widnes earlier this week. Would Kear go back to Belle Vue to assist this time around?
With back to back home games coming up against Leeds and Leigh respectively, Friday night is the perfect opportunity for Salford to start building momentum as we head towards the business end of the season.
The bookmakers must be expecting a close game with Wakefield having just a six point start on the handicap.
The action gets under way at 7:45pm
Safe travels and enjoy the match.
Paul Whiteside.
Big thanks to Steve McCormick for the photos.
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