After two great home wins against St Helens and Widnes Vikings, Ian Watson’s Devils made the short trip to Wigan optimistic that a victory would keep them among the Super League leaders.
The Red Devils have lost 18 successive away matches to the Warriors since a 1997 triumph at Central Park.
And history was to repeat at the DW Stadium as Salford narrowly lost by 20-16.
The Reds were able to take an early lead with a Gareth O’Brien penalty after a Wigan infringement at a play-the-ball (2-0).
Three minutes later the Warriors nosed ahead when Oliver Gildart who had a successful loan spell with the Reds last season, skipped through the Reds ranks to score (4-2).
In the 23rd minute Wigan went further ahead when a 60 yards break saw Gildart cross the line for his second try. This time Matty Smith tagged on the kick for a 10-2 lead.
With half-time approaching the Reds looked like scoring when Josh Griffin streaked clear on a 40 yards run towards the Wigan posts but could not get past full-back Lewis Tierney who hauled him down.
The hooter sounded seconds later before the Reds could launch another attack.
The second-half was only three minutes old when Wigan split the Reds defence open for centre Anthony Gelling to scamper over the line. Smith added the conversion for what was looking a comfortable 16-2 lead.
The Reds were beginning to look a bit lethargic but got a second wind and went close on a number of occasions.
In the 57th minute the Reds at last got some reward for their spell of pressure when a short kick by Michael Dobson was snapped up by Junior Sau.
Uncharacteristically Josh Griffin missed a fairly easy conversion for a 16-6 score-line.
The Reds were beginning to have more of a say in the game and in the 70th minute added a third try when Josh Griffin forced his way over.
This time O’Brien’s kick sailed wide across the posts (16-10).
Five minutes later the Reds fight-back got even more impressive when Ben Murdoch –Masila ploughed through a ruck of Wigan defenders to crash over by the posts.
Josh Griffin landed the crucial conversion to draw the sides level at 16-16.
Any thoughts of a surprise victory were dispelled in the dying stages when Dom Manfredi dived over in the corner for a final score of 20-16.
Salford had, for large parts of the game, not looked as sharp as in previous wins this season but they had hung on in there showing tremendous tenacity which very nearly brought its own reward.
Head coach Ian Watson said after the game: “We gave them too much respect in the first half and you can’t do that to teams like Wigan,”
“You can’t feel them out, you’ve got to attack them from the off.
“But in the second half, you saw what we could do when we have the right mind-set. The guys realised at half-time that we hadn’t played well but we were still in the game.
“We just didn’t have enough to come through the other side. It was bitter-sweet, we felt we had them on the ropes but we didn’t have enough to finish them off. Good teams like Wigan find a way to win and we’ve still got to progress to that stage.”
Salford: O’Brien, Carney, Sau, J Griffin, Johnson, Lui, Dobson, Kopczak, Lee, G Griffin, Murdoch-Masila, Jones, Flanagan.
Subs: Tomkins, Krasniqi, J Walne, Evalds
Referee: Mr G Stokes
Attendance: 10,897
