Sadly, this was far from this being the case, in this match the overall performance of the side regressed well below that shown by much the same team that had turned out in the last two encounters, away at London and Hull KR.
It had all seemed so positive in the first five to ten minutes, when, with robust and assured defence, the Red Devils totally unsettled their Yorkshire visitors into making a number of handling errors, as a result of the pressure under which they were placed.
This led to the home side enjoying a plentiful supply of possession, and good field position, with which to launch waves of attack on the Giants’ line, and for the whole of this period the Salford lads played with a confidence and assurance which made one feel that it was only a matter of time before they ran in several tries.
Whether this confidence turned too quickly into over-confidence is unknown, but the errors which Huddersfield coughed up in that early period, as a result of the pressure they were under, was replicated by the Red Devils as a result of poor execution, rather than from the pressure they were put under.
Consequently, when, against the run of play Huddersfield broke, from within their own half, to open the scoring, on 12 minutes, at 0-6, it was totally unexpected, and came as a shock to everyone including the Salford players.
Regroup as they did, on the restart, their spirit was broken eight minutes later, when a difficultly bouncing kick-in-goal was knocked by a defender into the hands of an advancing visitor for the score to be doubled, eight minutes later.
From that point onwards, their early poor execution on attack became rife as possession was frittered away with a number of errors, and Huddersfield took full advantage to rattle up a 0-24 score at half time.
This had become 0-40 by 62 minutes, and by 75, it looked as though The Devils were going to remain pointless. Fortunately, a quick play-the-ball by Matt Wilkinson enabled dummy half Aaron Moore to scoot past the nearest defenders and run forty metres for a home try, which he converted, on 76 minutes.
Nevertheless, the Giants had the final say, and the Devils’ despair was completed by the visitors’ try in the corner being converted from the touchline.
