Star date: 5th March 2017

DEVILS BEAT WOLVES AS SAVE THE GRANGE GETS SUPPORT

Salford played host to Warrington at the AJ Bell Stadium and a big crowd was treated to a brilliant Red Devils performance that saw a 24-14 victory, as Simon Williams reports, with photos by Gareth Lyons.

Meanwhile, the Save The Grange campaign was out in force at the match, getting hundreds of signatures to try and stop the closure of the city's only residential home for disabled children.

Full details here...

Salford beat Warrington Wolves for the first time in ten matches to leave the Wire winless this season. Yet Warrington led 10-8 at half time. Tries from Declan Patton and Jack Hughes cancelled out efforts from Junior Sa'u and George Griffin, with Patton converting to edge Warrington in front.

Just before this, however, Salford broke clear and were pulled back for a forward pass. Where the ref got this from I will never know. But Salford are made of real stern stuff nowadays and were not to be out done

Kriss Brining's touchdown put Salford in front before Warrington levelled the game through Jack Johnson's score. Sa'u won it when he crossed for the second time from a grubber kick. The conversion from Gareth O'Brien along with his penalty kick two minutes from time sealed the win.

Salford coach Ian Watson said: "We showed grit and determination especially after a few 50/50 calls went against us. The result is very pleasing as a group. Our game management has been very good all year and Michael Dobson was again first-class.

"We are happy with where we are, especially after everyone was writing us off before the season" he added "We are learning and improving every week and trying to go forward with consistency. Beating a very good team like Warrington will give us belief for the rest of the season."

After the game I managed to catch up with a few happy Salford fans. Kevin Mccallum from Irlam said: "A disciplined, professional performance, Dobson controlled the game"... Paul Croft from Monton added: "Excellent all round performance, defence was spot on today, team spirit was great..."

I personally felt this was a brilliant team performance and was proud off all the lads. Ian Watson is really impressing me with the way he has got this team playing , and you have to take your hat off to Marwan for giving him the job. And the news that Gaz O'Bien has signed a new three year deal at the club just rounded the week off.

Meanwhile, Salford's Ian Blease and Danny Barton invited Save The Grange campaigners to the match and they report that "With the help of family and friends we acquired another 300 plus signatures for our petition".

The Grange is the only residential home for disabled children in the city and Salford Council wants to close it to save £300,000, despite huge opposition from families, friends and anti-cuts campaigners. There are currently over 1,000 signatures on the paper petition and 608 on the e-petition. To sign the e-petition – click here

For a background into the Save The Grange campaign – click here and click here

Match report by Simon Williams
Photos by Gareth Lyons – for more of Gareth's photos of the match – click here