Browse Sections

• Salford City Reds
• Local football
• Local cricket

Salford City Reds 30 Halifax 24

Dave Lawrenson
2/ 7/2008

SALFORD emerged victorious from an amazing encounter with plucky Halifax to leap-frog them at the top of the League One table.

But the game at the Willows will have given Halifax and fellow high-flyers Celtic more hope than ever of beating the Reds to the league title.

For Salford’s frailties were there for all to see as they threw away a commanding lead for the second week running.

Eighty minute performances from Salford have been few and far between this season. At the beginning of the campaign they were starting games slowly but playing well at the business end of proceedings. And now they are flying out of the blocks before considerably dropping their standards and being pegged back.

They paid the price for that by losing two competition points at Widnes the previous week as a 16-4 lead was turned into a 20-18 defeat. And Salford capitulated to an even greater extent in their clash of the titans with Halifax as the visitors somehow clawed back a 24-0 deficit.

To Salford’s immense credit though, they held their nerve on this occasion. They managed to halt Halifax’s momentum and came out on top thanks to a moment of magic from Karl Fitzpatrick on 62 minutes.

The Irish international full back, who reacted to his recent axing like a true professional judging by his performances since he forced his way back into the side, pulled off an outrageous off-load to gift Stefan Ratchford with the match winning score after thundering into a two-man tackle at full speed.

Fitzpatrick also defended well throughout and opened up the scoring.

Further tries followed by Mat Gardner, Robbie Paul and Stuart Littler while John Wilshere shook off the criticism from his three out of six goal kicking record against Widnes by knocking over five out of five.

Props Craig Stapleton and Phil Leuluai also made key contributions by providing plenty of go-forward down the middle while Kiwi legend Paul had one of his best games in a Salford shirt.

Gardner, Adam Sidlow and Malc Alker were other solid performers but Salford were again guilty of making far too many handling errors.

The Reds gave part-timers Halifax an open invitation to come back from the dead by continually coughing up possession. And Salford’s lack of direction as they twice looked to kill the game off with late drop goals was also a cause for concern.

In the end, Salford were thankful that Ben Black failed to find Mark Flanagan when a late equalising try looked a certainty following an incisive break. But the fact is that Salford are going into the Northern Rail Cup final on the back of a crucial win and sitting pretty at the top of the table. So it would be wrong to be too critical of the Reds.

Team: Fitzpatrick; Gardner, Littler, Wilshere, White; Paul, Myler; Sidlow, Alker, Stapleton, Bannister, Adamson, Turner. Subs used: Highton, Ratchford, Sibbit, Leuluai. Tries: Fitzpatrick, Gardner, Paul, Littler, Ratchford. Goals: Wilshere (5). Attendance: 4,373.