Browse Sections

• Salford City Reds
• Local football
• Local cricket

Let’s see how good Halifax really are

Malc Alker
25/ 6/2008

"I HAVE been a part of some mightily frustrating defeats in my time and Thursday night’s loss at Widnes is right up there with the worst of them.

I still can’t believe that we did not come out on top.

We have a lot of ex-Widnes players at Salford who were determined to play well against their former club. And we were in total control of proceedings when we led 16-4 with about 25 minutes left to play.

 Our defence up to that point had been superb but we had dropped the ball on too many occasions and, as a result, Widnes were still in the game. To the home side’s credit, they finished the match strongly to wrestle the points away from us. And you have to take your hat off to Steven Tyrer for the way he took his two tries on his Widnes debut.

But there is no doubt in my mind that we would have won that game had it not been for us playing an exhausting Northern Rail Cup semi-final just five days earlier.

The effects of that game were there for all to see in the closing stages on Thursday. Some of our players’ legs were gone and Widnes, having had the previous week off, were able to get a roll on us. But the result was by no means a disaster. Widnes are one of the best sides in the competition. Like us, they are a full-time outfit and playing them away from home was always going to be tough. And our fate is still very much in our own hands in terms of trying to finish the season at the top of the table. We are second only to Halifax and we have to play them twice in the next month or so.

 Our first meeting is at the Willows this Friday. Halifax have been the surprise package of the National League season. Other clubs were expected to pose us a greater title challenge than Halifax but they have proved their doubters wrong with a host of impressive performances. They have got a lot of good players and they have been exceptionally consistent this season. And one look at their points scored column in the League One table shows you that their players certainly know where the try line is. But Halifax have not come up against us yet. Let’s see how good they really are come 8pm on Friday.

Meanwhile, it was great to see so many fans at the game on Thursday. It was like being in Super League again as a National League record gate made a crescendo of noise in the thrilling climax to the match."