Salford Red Devils’ Super League status relies on Ian Watson’s men getting a good result at home to Featherstone Rovers at The AJ Bell tomorrow (KO 15:00 BST).
After Ian Watson’s men have won just one of their last four games, they find themselves sixth in the table, and with Leigh securing their place in Super League with a win against Huddersfield earlier today, fixtures are starting to run out for the cash rich club.
Last week in particular against Leeds Rhinos demonstrated the gulf between two teams who were expected to be in the Super 8s, as The Yorkshire club ran riot at Headingley winning 30-8.
Should Salford win tomorrow though, their chances of survival are given a big boost
If results go their way then they could overtake Hull KR to secure a spot in the million pound game, however with Huddersfield losing to Leigh Ian Watson’s men will want to push the giants to secure automatic survival.
However, with the departures from the club in recent weeks, you’d think Salford were down already.
Most recent of these is the loss of Mason Canton-Brown who departs for Wakefield at the end of the season, the outside back has been one of the few stand out player in what has become a miserable season for The Red Devils.
Most concerningly though, is that Tim Sheens will depart from the club at the end of the season.
The Director of rugby will join up with Hull KR and become Rover’s new head coach the following year.
It’s a worrying sign that the attraction of the Salford Red Devils project is fading as success still seems to be a long way away.
Whilst Marwan Koukash has always stated that he would allow Sheen’s to leave if he was offered a coaching role, it only adds to what is becoming an exodus of the club.
In terms of the teams, Salford have added Mark Flanagan and Greg Johnson to their squad after the pair missed out last week.
The visitors will bring in Robbie Ward and John Davies in place of Brad Tagg and Jamie Foster.
Salford (from): Burgess, Dobson, Evalds, Flanagan, G Griffin, J Griffin, Hauraki, Walne, Jones, Johnson, Kopczak, Krasniqi, Lannon, Lui, Murdoch-Masilia, O’Brien, Sa’u, Tomkins, Vidot.
Featherstone (from): Ellis, Duckworth, Craven, Briscoe, Ormondroyd, Thackeray, Day, Griffin, Briggs, Hardman, Hill, Spears, Cooper, Snitch, Baldwinson, Taulapapa, Ward, Walters, Davies.
