Match report by Ken Roberts
It was a familiar story for the Salford City Roosters this season as they were defeated in Dewsbury by promotion hopefuls Shaw Cross Sharks – plenty of Heart, plenty of courage, no lack of skill, but a shortage of numbers. Coach Paul Verdon was forced to pull his boots on again and Simon Brown made his first appearance of the season but that still left the side with a shirt unfilled, and matters got worse when Jake Lynch was lost to a back injury just 10 minutes into the game. Bravely he returned later in an emergency but only lasted 9 more minutes.
The Roosters were the livelier side in the first quarter of the game and were unlucky to go in 4 points adrift at half time but they ran out of steam in the second half as injuries to Tom Pratt and Mark Thomas meant no replacements were left on the bench, whilst the home team refreshed their forwards frequently. No doubt about who the best forward on the pitch was though as Roosters’ Joe Connor took his 11th man of the match award of the season.
Roosters forced 2 goal line drop outs in the opening 3 minutes and Bradley White was involved in both. It was his kick to the in goal that saw George Kemp wrap up full back Sam Ottewell in goal for the first, and his pass a minute later would have seen Roosters score but for Brandon French getting a hand to the ball and guiding it dead. Roosters did take the lead however, on 10 minutes. Will Rigby fed Mark Thomas who swapped passes with Danny Trimble before forcing his way over the try line wide out, too far out in fact for White to convert (4-0).
The home side took the lead on 18 minutes when a huge gap suddenly appeared in the Roosters defence and Andy Fawkes strolled through for a try next to the posts that Matt Byatt converted easily (4-6), but Roosters hit the front again 5 minutes later. Ross Smith made a strong run into the home defensive line and then Marc Jones’ inside pass saw Connor storm over between the sticks taking three defenders with him. White converted (10-6) and Roosters held the lead until 6 minutes from the half time whistle.
On 34 minutes Roosters dropped a high kick and the ball was moved quickly to the wing from the scrum where Rob Byatt went over the try line (10-10), then just a minute from the break, James Davies forced the ball down half way between the posts and corner flag. Fortunately, change kicker French missed both conversion attempts (10-14).
In the second half the momentum swung the way of the Yorkshire side and they forced a goal line drop out on 44 minutes when Andrew Muscat was tackled back into his in goal, and 4 minutes later they extended the lead when John Rourke sent Ross Roebuck over in the corner, too far out for Matt Byatt to convert (10-18), but Byatt did convert again after Rourke broke the line and sent Ottewell scampering between the sticks on 51 minutes (10-24).
Any hope of the Roosters coming back ended on 64 minutes when French off loaded for Roebuck to score in the corner again, and again the angle was too tight for Byatt to convert (10-28) although the Roosters were not going to go down without a fight and they were rewarded on 72 minutes when Connor crashed over straight from a scrum for his 24th try in 23 appearances. Muscat took over the kicking duties and took the score to 16-28, which would have been a fair result, but Roosters defence was breached again in the dying seconds with a Joe Halloran try 15 metres from the corner. Martyn Holland became the home sides third goal kicker but he too missed (16-32) and as his kick sailed wide the referee blew for full time.
