Browse Sections

• Salford City Reds
• Local football
• Local cricket

Fighting spirit will serve us well

8/ 5/2008

MALCOLM ALKER COLUMN: YOU have to admire the fighting spirit of sides like St Helens and, in the world of football, Manchester United. They are renowned for never giving up and for trying their very best right up to the final whistle. And I’m happy to say that we are now starting to show that attitude at Salford.

In the past we have sometimes been guilty of giving up when things have gone against us. When you are losing a game with passes not sticking and chances being squandered it is not easy to keep yourself feeling positive. But that is something that we have learnt to do this season.

Our game at Sheffield on Friday night bears testimony to that. We were 24-16 behind with just four minutes left on the clock. But we never gave up hope and our two late tries ensured that we are still unbeaten in National League One.

That unbeaten record means a lot to us. There is no way that we are going to lose it without one hell of a fight. It would be a fantastic achievement to go through the entire league campaign without suffering a single defeat. That is our aim and, with the immense fighting sprit of this year’s squad, I genuinely believe we can do that.

But we need to start playing better than we did at Sheffield. Too many players simply weren’t at the races. We wasted a lot of chances and there was not enough oomph in our defence. We played much better in the second half than we did in the first but, overall, it was a very average performance from us.

The end result was one point lost. But it would have been two points lost had it not been for the late tries by Jordan Turner and Paul White. I was on the bench when Whitey scored with just seconds remaining. I must have jumped six feet into the air when Whitey went over and it’s just a shame that Stefan Ratchford could not add a winning conversion.

That was one of three failed conversion attempts on our part but no one was pointing any fingers at Stefan or our other goal kicker Jordan Turner after the game. They are not regular goal kickers and there were lots of other Salford players guilty of making mistakes on the night.

We have no game this weekend and the break is certainly a welcome one. It is our first weekend off all season.

Don’t get me wrong, I would much rather have a Challenge Cup tie than a weekend off to look forward to. But the break will give us the chance to recharge our batteries and, hopefully, we will return to action against Celtic Crusaders next week with some much needed extra spark in our play."