Salford City Roosters travelled to St. Helens to face Blackbrook who, at the start of the day, were on the same points as the Roosters, with the prospect that the losing side could be dragged into the relegation battle.
Roosters lost scrum half John Brookes to work commitments and Mike Foster to a injury at work and as a result of that, travelled with only three substitutes.
On a sweltering day the lack of interchanges did not help the Roosters cause but they can have no complaints about the narrow defeat because they had more than enough chances to win the game.
The home side just about deserved their success that leaves the Salford side outside of the relegation zone on points scoring difference only.
Busy hooker Lee Salisbury took the man of the match award although Marc Gilligan was also in outstanding form. There was no lack of effort from any of the Roosters side but mistakes and wrong choices at vital times proved very costly.
The visitors clearly held the upper hand in the first quarter of the game and it was no surprise that they took the lead on 13 minutes. Quick hands across the pitch involving Steve Barry and Will Rigby ended with Tom Smith forcing the ball down between two defenders in the corner.
Bradley White missed the conversion by inches (4-0), although he made no mistake 15 metres from the posts when the Roosters scored again on 20 minutes. Gilligan charged down the middle bursting one tackle and off loading out of another before passing to Marc Jones who spun out of a tackle to score (10-0).
At this stage the Roosters looked in total control and maybe that was their own downfall because Blackbrook took an unlikely looking lead into the interval.
On 28 minutes Jordan Darwin dummied to pass and shot through a gap to score a try that Aaron Hewitt converted (10-6).
That should have been Salford’s wakeup call but they didn’t heed the warning and were left shell shocked when Blackbrook scored two unconverted tries in the last three minutes.
Roosters failed to react when a ball came loose and Jake Shaw benefitted in the corner (10-10) and then right on the whistle a long pass from Deon Cross saw Chris Wynn go in by the corner flag (10-14).
A minute into the second half Blackbrook extended their advantage when Jake Shaw broke from half way and scored a try that Hewitt converted (10-20) and finally, that was the signal for the Roosters to up their game again.
On 49 minutes Andrew Muscat dislodged the ball with a great tackle and popped up again at the end of that set to squeeze over in the corner, White converted brilliantly (16-20) and Roosters took control of the game again.
Just after the hour Paul Morgan off loaded to Muscat and the centre worked really hard to get the ball down with three defenders in attendance for his second try.
This time White’s kick from the touch line unluckily hit the near post (20-20) but he did nudge the Roosters back in front with a long distance penalty on 64 minutes after a high tackle on Gilligan (22-20).
Both fought hard for the winning score in scorching heat and it came on 71 minutes. A hopeful “bomb” on the last tackle was spilled by the Roosters and at the end of their repeat set Craig Davidson crashed over the line leaving Hewitt and easy conversion (22-26).
Roosters tried hard to wrestle the game back from Blackbrook and they forced the home side into a goal line drop out, alas, it was too late in the day and there was no time left to take the kick.
