After very nearly pulling off a surprise win at Wigan last week, coach Ian Watson stuck by the same starting 13 with the only change being on the bench where Adam Walne came in for Olsi Krasniqi.
The Reds got off to a flying start when powerhouse centre Junior Sau scattered the Wolves defence to force his way over for a close range try.
Michael Dobson added the straightforward conversion for a 6-0 lead after three minutes.
Six minutes later the Wolves replied when Jack Hughes scrambled over the Reds line.
After much deliberation, video referee Richard Silverwood awarded the try. Chris Sandow booted home the kick to level the scores at 6-6.
In the 14th minute the Wolves forged ahead when Ben Currie took advantage of some sloppy Reds defending to glide over the line. Sandow’s conversion brought a 6-12 lead.
The Reds then drew level in the 24th minute after Ben Murdoch-Masila was hauled down short.
A neat kick over the line from Dobson was pounced on by Josh Jones.
This time former Wolves player Gareth O’Brien added the extras (12-12).
Just under the half-hour the Reds got their noses back in front after a good run by Jones took play close to the Wolves line and led to Greg Johnson squirming over from a play-the–ball.
O’Brien added the two points for an 18-12 lead.
Salford were firing on all cylinders now and went further ahead five minutes later when a swirling kick by Dobson was stolen from the grasp of Warrington full-back Matty Russell by Sa’u who crossed the whitewash for his second try.
O’Brien’s conversion gave the Reds an impressive looking 24-12 advantage.
There was still more to come though before the break as Josh Griffin got in on the act when a surging run saw him power his way over the try-line (28-12).
Most of the first half had taken place in a downpour and the slippy underfoot conditions meant any expansive rugby was out of the question.
The early part of the second half was scoreless apart from an O’Brien penalty until the 50th minute when centre Ryan Atkins got over the Reds line. Sandow added the kick for a 30-18 score-line.
Sandwiched in-between, a flare-up led to Justin Carney and Ben Currie spending ten minutes in the sin-bin.
Salford had looked like they were cruising to victory but the Wolves had other ideas and a further try from Atkins and a conversion from Sandow saw the visitors just six points behind at 30-24.
If the first half belonged to Salford then the second 40 were going Warrington’s way and when Ashton Sims crashed over it was game on.
Sandow whacked home his kick to draw the sides level again at 30-30 with just under 15 minutes remaining.
The Reds gradually worked their way upto the Wolves line and drop goal attempts by Dobson and Robert Lui hardly left the ground.
With just a couple of minutes remaining on the clock referee Robert Hicks awarded the Wolves a penalty but Sandow’s kick from 40 yards was short and it looked like both sides would have to settle for a draw but in the dying seconds Sandow dropped a priceless goal to snatch a dramatic 31-30 win.
For the second week running the Reds failed to close the game down when they were within touching distance of victory.
Ian Watson said later: “We could have been smarter. In the first half we did all the right things and played the way we had spoken about but in the second half we kind of shut up shop. We needed to keep playing the way we were to get
the result.
“We’ve been bitten twice now and maybe that’s something as a club we need to learn, how to finish games off.”
Salford: O’Brien, Carney, Sa’u, J Griffin, Johnson, Lui, Dobson, Kopczak, Lee, G Griffin, Murdoch-Masila, Jones, Flanagan.
Subs: Tomkins, A Walne, J Walne, Evalds
Referee: Mr R Hicks
