Salford 34 London 4 Match report

Salford Red Devils were made to work hard in the victory over London on Sunday at the Salford Community stadium. 

Without  Ryan Brierley, Amir Bourouh, Cade Cust and Jack Ormondroyd in the starting 17 Paul Rowley selected Chris Hankinson at Fullback Joe Shorrocks at Hooker, Chris Atkin continued his half back partnership with Marc Sneyd and a graduate from Salford Red Devils development academy Nathan Connell took his place on the Bench.

Salford had early pressure as repeat sets on the London line tested the broncos line. Unfortunately for the Red Devils  they were unable to come up with the score.

As the 1st half went on it became littered with errors from both teams causing it to be a scrappy contest nether side really got hold of. 

Salford thought they had opened the scoring when after a period of pressure resulted in a high kick from Marc Sneyd being collected by Salford Centre Nene McDonald who dived over the line in front of the South Stand. Unfortunately for Salford the video referee disallowed the try for offside.

London when given territory by Salford by ill discipline also tested the Salford defence Olive Leyland’s cross field kick was patted down in the air by Fullback Alex Walker who combined with Jacob Jones a  little kick found winger Lee Kershaw who scored. Fortunately for Salford the video referee decides that Kershaw was offside when the kick took place and the game remained scoreless.

London thought they had opened the scoring for the 2nd time when Marcus Stock went bundling over for what he thought was a try but once more, the video referee stepped in and the try off the board for a double movement. 
Salford did finally open the scoring late in the 1st half good work by Joe Mellor creating space for Sam Stone to barge his way over for the score. Marc Sneyd converted the try and Salford went into half time leading 6-0.
The 2nd half started with a incident involving Gil Dudson, Matty Foster and Hakrim Maloudi being put on report. 

 London having a opportunity shortly after a break by Jarrod Bassett gave Maloudi space  However, Chris Atkin & Chris Hankinson defend very well to deny the Broncos.

This shook Salford into action and Paul Rowley's men tested the London Broncos defence a flowing move by Salford transporting the ball from side to side of the field looking for a opening was promising, a couple of border line forward passes went un noticed by both linesman and referee but there are the breaks you need when challenging for a playoff spot as a kick by Marc Sneyd landed in the hands of Deon Cross to score. 10-0 Salford

Another flowing move by Salford allowed Centre Tim Lafai space to torment the London Broncos defence he found Nene McDonald who raced over from 30 metres to extend Salfords lead further.

Marc Sneyd continued to dictate operations for Salford and his measured kick found the in goal Tim Lafi had the speed and the know how to ground the ball. Sneyd himself converted and Salford's lead was extended to 22 points.

After good work by Brad Singleton and Shane Wright it looked like Marc Sneyd was about to be rewarded with a try for himself unfortunately a last gasp defensive effort from the Broncos forced the Salford scrum half to offload to Shane Wright who posted another 4 points for the Red Devils.

In the dying moments of the game the Sneyd Lafai kick combo came up trumps again for another score for the Red Devils and despite some desperate defensive the Broncos registered a score on the final hooter though and Maloudi. The conversion fell short and the final hooter sounded

The game wasn’t pretty, With Rowley ball you expect fast flowing rugby but some games like this one a combination of teams come to frustrate and Salford being out of sorts the performance doesn’t happen.  despite this posting 34 points is a positive and helps our points difference going forward.
A win is a win Matty Foster limped off in a boot towards the end of the game which may give Paul Rowley a headache, Joe Mellor and Gil Dudson gave enthusiasm off the bench as did Nathan Connell which was needed at a critical time, Chris Hankinson looked solid at fullback and Tim Lafai two try’s and one assist showed the class he has,  Nene McDonald who is always a threat going forward showed some good touches too.

 It’s two more points on the league table as our quest for a playoff spot continues and come the business end of season if we sneak into the playoffs by two points we can look back at this game as the one that got us there.

Full time Salford 34 London 4
Match Report by Rob Parkinson

Pictures by Steve McCormick