A minute's applause was held before kick-off in memory of Ronan Costello, the 17-year-old Giants player who tragically died earlier this week after being injured in an Academy match against Salford. His former team-mates at Huddersfield and Brighouse Rangers were on the pitch for the tribute, and a further sixty seconds applause for Costello was held after 17 minutes.
Salford supporters, based at the Dog and Partridge in Eccles, and sponsored by The Sounds of Salford radio, decided to show the rugby league world that the true fans of Salford Reds care and that we are a rugby family by unfurling a banner in Ronan's memory,
On the pitch, Huddersfield survived a rousing late Salford rally in their Super League clash to seal a first win in four games and give caretaker coach Andy Kelly a winning start 31-30.
Kelly was put in charge after Paul Anderson's sacking on Thursday, and saw his side come from behind to lead 16-12 at the break, with tries from Jake Connor, Ukuma Ta'ai and Leroy Cudjoe cancelling out Craig Kopczak's early score.
Daniel Vidot went over for Salford's second try just before half-time but Huddersfield looked set for a comfortable win when they led 31-18 thanks to tries from Eorl Crabtree and Joe Wardle, with Danny Brough dropping what turned out to be a match-winning point.
A couple of early handling errors by Brough proved costly, with Gareth O'Brien scooting clear for Robert Lui to send Kopczak crashing over after only six minutes.
O'Brien converted but the Giants did not take long to hit back, with Connor taking Wardle's pass to go over in the corner and make it 6-4, despite Vidot's attempt to push the winger into touch. Grix had a try disallowed from a Jamie Ellis kick, with Salford on the back foot after their encouraging start.
Josh Jones did his best to extend Salford's lead, but was held just short of the line, with neither side able to take charge. The Giants went ahead for the first time after 26 minutes when Ta'ai blasted his way through Salford's defenders, with Brough's goal firing his side ahead 10-6. Then Brough followed a storming Ellis burst to send Cudjoe over on the half-hour mark to extend the lead to 16-6. Salford desperately needed a try before the break and Vidot obliged thanks to slick hands from Lui and O'Brien, who added the conversion off the touchline.
It was still nip and tuck early in the second half, with Brough opting to take a penalty to give his side a six-point advantage after fifty minutes. But Jones cut inside to brush off Jermaine McGillvary for Salford's third try, with O'Brien landing another difficult conversion to level the scores.
Brough had a drop-goal attempt charged down as he looked to edge his side back in front in this closely-fought encounter. But Crabtree did better stretching over for a fine individual effort after 62 minutes, with Brough's goal making it 24-18. Huddersfield could then breathe a little easier with a sizzling try finished off by Wardle after fine work by Ellis and Kyle Wood. Brough added his decisive drop goal before the dramatic last ten minutes which also saw Salford winger Justin Carney sin binned for a professional foul.
After the game I spoke with several Salford fans. Nathan Archer, from Lower Broughton, pulled no punches. He said Salford badly need to look at the coaching staff... "How can we go from looking like a team that looked capable of winning the Challenge Cup a few months ago, to losing to the bottom two teams? The players can only do as the coach tells them so the buck must stop with him..."
Dennis Robins Riley, from Weaste, said "Sadly we have a coach who is not getting the best out of the players, is it time for Tim Sheens to take the coaching reins? Two weeks on the trot we have failed to beat the bottom two teams, what does that say?" Ian Archer, also of Weaste, said we lacked any direction from the half backs until 75 minutes... "The coach Watson's substitutions are mind boggling; moving Carney to full back unreal..."
The pressure seems to be mounting for coach Ian Watson. I personally was very disappointed with the crowd - 1,958 is just not good enough, and neither was the performance by the team. The last two weeks we should have won both games and have gone from a team looking like we could match anyone, to a team looking like we are in serious relegation trouble.
It's been another bad week for the club all round...
*Words by Simon Williams, who also runs The Sounds of Salford Radio
Photo by Ian Archer
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