Salford City Roosters slipped 5 points behind 5th from bottom Blackbrook after being held at home by Dewsbury Celtic but maintained the 2 point gap between themselves and the Dewsbury side who are in the third relegation spot. With 8 games left to play and 6 of them at home Roosters still have the opportunity to save themselves from a second successive relegation but they badly need a confidence boosting win.
Back in April the Roosters took a weakened side to Dewsbury and after a run of early injuries they left Dewsbury feeling unlucky to lose narrowly. This time there could be no excuses as the Roosters fielded a much stronger team and the scene was set for a victory. Unfortunately, Celtic had not read the script.
The Connor brothers Ben and Joe are badly missed long term injuries while John Brookes, Paul Morgan, Tom Pratt and Danny Trimble are also unavailable but Roosters were able to bring able replacements back in with Christian Higgins, Martin Judge, Scott Bowden, John McAtee, Marc Gilligan, Adam Taher and George Kemp. Bradley White was moved to loose forward to accommodate Bowden who justified the move by taking the man of the match award but forwards Mark Thomas and Marc Gilligan, along with stand in full back Christian Higgins were all in contention.
The game was slightly marred by an inexperienced referee who gave 26 penalties (17 to Celtic) and sin binned 5 players mostly due to over-reaction, because the game was played in good spirit, but it was the same for both teams.
Celtic were much faster out of the blocks and had much the better of the opening quarter, going close on 7 minutes when Higgins and Klaus Ndinga managed to bundle winger Andy Smith into touch just short of the line, then forcing a goal line drop out on 12 minutes when scrum half Josh Knowles chased his own kick to pressure Lee Salisbury into knocking the ball dead.
On 26 minutes Celtic had Danny Buckley sin binned for a professional foul – preventing Higgins from taking a quick tap, but the visitors still managed to prevent Roosters getting across the try line, although Salford did manage to take a lead with a long distance penalty by Bradley White on 31 minutes after Marc Jones took a high shot (2-0). They held onto that lead into the break but have White to thank for that after he managed to get his body under the ball preventing Reece Borbely getting the ball down under the crossbar a minute from the whistle.
Straight from the re-start Liam Riley broke down the middle for Celtic only to be hauled down short of the try line in an incident that saw White sin binned for holding down. Not only did Salford survive being a man down though, but they stretched their lead on 50 minutes. Lee Salisbury passed for Bowden to force the ball down half way between the sticks and the corner and change kicker Alex Edwards tagged on the goal points (8-0).
Roosters were in control at this point and forced a goal line drop out on 55 minutes when Ndinga chased Bowden’s kick and Owen Smith kicked the ball dead, but on 61 minutes Andrew Muscat pulled off a try saving tackle on Jamaine Akadaire at the other end.
On 62 minutes Celtic’s Knowles was sin binned for persistently slowing down the Roosters attack illegally, and 2 minutes later he was followed by Matt Sherridan who could easily have seen red rather than yellow for a high tackle on Ndinga that saw the young winger leave the field.
Despite being down to 11 players the Dewsbury outfit managed to keep the Roosters out, and just as they got back to full strength on 74 minutes they opened their account. A slick cross field passing movement was finished off by Owen Smith diving over in the corner, although too far out for Akadaire to convert (8-4).
Both defences were proving “tough nuts to crack” and points were clearly going to be hard to come by so, when White took a high tackle on 77 minutes he slotted over the penalty (10-4), but this was the signal for the Yorkshire side to throw caution to the wind and go for all out attack. They were aided in their cause by a succession of penalties and, after one such penalty 2 minutes from time, Higgins was sin binned for throwing a punch in a case of mistaken identity.
Celtic threw everything at the Roosters and as the game moved into the third minute of injury time the home defence finally cracked and Borbely scored wide out. Akadaire, who had missed a similar effort from the other wing held his nerve to slot the goal brilliantly (10-10) and the referee blew up to end the game.
It was heartbreaking for the Roosters and felt more like a defeat than a draw but it would not have been justice for their efforts if Celtic would have lost. A draw was a fair result.
