Salford were looking to continue the great win last week as they came up against an in form Wakefield Trinity. The Red Devils lost 32-18 at Wakefield last month and were missing banned winger Justin Carney, with Evalds returning after serving a one-match suspension for the Magic Weekend win over Widnes.
The Wildcats were bidding for their first win in four visits to Salford but an early handling error by Anthony England put his side under pressure and Evalds went over from a delicate grubber kick by Michael Dobson after just three minutes.
A sweeping move from inside their own half almost brought another Salford try with Daniel Vidot and Evalds racing clear. Salford were proving dangerous on the counter attack and when Miller fumbled a pass, Lui accelerated fifty metres to launch another offensive. Wakefield's defence was impressive, with Vidot pushed into touch after another Red Devils raid. And they were rewarded for their perseverance with Anthony Tupou going over after 27 minutes to level the scores, with Liam Finn off target with the conversion attempt.
The Wildcats were down to 12 men five minutes before the break when skipper Kirmond was sin-binned for a blatant trip and it proved costly, with Lannon scorching over for a try, converted by O'Brien to make it 10-4. Then Jones-Bishop was yellow-carded for hauling back Evalds chasing a kick but O'Brien missed the long-range penalty attempt just before the interval.
Wakefield started the second half with eleven players but were helped by an early handling mistake by Griffin. Kirmond returned but just in time for Flanagan to score after a return pass from O'Brien, who added the conversion to make it 16-4.
Then Lannon notched his second try from a tap back from a kick to stretch the lead to 22-4. Salford made it three tries in five minutes with Lui racing onto a pass from Adam Walne to leave the Cats with a mountain to climb. A Griffin try was cancelled out by Jones-Bishop to leave Wakefield trailing 34-8 before Sa'u crossed in the last minute to send the Wildcats crashing to only their second Super League defeat in nine matches. Final score: 38-8.
Salford have taken another step to clawing back the six points deducted for breaching the salary cap, and with that deduction decision due to be heard the Sports Committee and not the, seemingly biased against Salford, RFL it was good news for the club and the fans this week.
After the game I spoke with three very happy Salford fans. Craig Piggot of Winton told me "On this form everything is coming together very nicely for the play offs"... Ian Archer from Lower Broughton said "In the second half we destroyed them, our forward play was the best I have seen all season and Lannon for me was man of the match". Paul Coleman of Weaste said it was "a brilliant performance, the only sad thing was there were only 3,022 in the crowd to see a brilliant team performance... We need to be the extra man, and at the final whistle the south stand in unison sang what is now becoming a firm favourite at Salford, `Foooock the RFL' - the way they have treated Salford and the owner Marwan is shameful..."
Photos by Ian Archer
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