Salford City Roosters saved their worst performance of the season for the trip to Wakefield to face bottom club Stanley Rangers and became the first side to lose to the Rangers this season.
Stanley have a poor team this year and there can be little doubt that they will be relegated to division 3 but on this day they came up against a Roosters team who played what coach Paul Verdon described as “dumb football”. They created enough chances to win this game but took wrong options or made unforced errors time and again.
To be fair to the Roosters though, once again injuries forced them to make 4 changes from the team that went so close at third placed Bradford Dudley Hill with John Brookes, Marc Gilligan, Christian Higgins and Martin Judge all missing. In as replacements came Paul Hallam, Paul Morgan, Liam Watson and Shaun Watson. Everybody gave all they could on the day but it fell short of what was required, although Mark Thomas was far and away the best player on the pitch.
Before this match Salford had only lost out in the penalty count just twice this season, although this time it went against them by 8-14 and some of the Roosters contingent pointed the finger at a young, inexperienced referee who did seem to give every 50/50 decision against them, but ultimately the blame for an embarrassing defeat rests squarely on the shoulders of the players.
Roosters made an encouraging start and down a huge slope in the first half they knew they needed to take a lead into half time, but it was the home team who opened the scoring on 11 minutes. On the last tackle Kieran Holt sent a high kick to the wing where Tom Smith was unprotected against two attackers and he was nudged off the ball, maybe unfairly, and Jack Ware touched the ball down. The score was awarded but Danny Grice missed with conversion attempt (0-4).
On 20 minutes Mark Thomas went marauding down the middle of the park scattering defenders like nine pins, then drawing full back Shaun Abson before sending Steve Barry over the try line 15 metres from the corner. A swirling wind made kicking really difficult for both sides but Bradley White judged it perfectly to give Salford a 6-4 lead. It looked likely that Roosters would take the narrow lead into half time until, 3 minutes from the break, 3 successive penalties put Rangers on the attack and Chris Grice managed to force the ball down between the sticks. His brother Danny couldn’t miss from right in front of the posts (6-10).
Roosters knew they would be up against it defending the slope in the second half but they again started well and drew level on 52 minutes when Morgan chipped the ball over the defence and Tom Pratt kicked it on then re-gathered to score half way between the posts and corner. White’s kick missed the far post by inches (10-10) but the Roosters continued to ask all the questions until the 58th minute. Lee Salisbury tackled one of the Rangers forwards but the Wakefield man was clearly holding Salisbury down by his shirt. Salisbury reacted and the referee over reacted and sent him to the sin bin.
Roosters actually survived being a man down for 10 minutes but two minutes after they returned to full strength disaster struck. Shaun Abson received a pass 25 metres out and unluckily Sean Watson slipped as he went to tackle him. There was no cover and Abson shot through the gap to score a try that Grice converted (10-16).
Danny Grice attempted a drop goal for Stanley on 72 minutes that missed and that was to be the last time the Rangers team ventured into Roosters half of the pitch. The Salford team suddenly burst into life and laid siege to the home try line, although the only time they breached the defence was 3 minutes from time when an attempted kick clearance went straight into the arms of Morgan who scored in the corner. Again White was unlucky with his shot at goal (14-16) and Rangers hung on for victory.
The Roosters are now 4 points behind Blackbrook and just 2 points above Dewsbury Celtic who are in the third relegation spot with Celtic being the visitors to Salford next Saturday for a must win match for both teams.
