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   Salford City Reds 10 Castleford Tigers 24
By Nigel Roberts
After waiting for years and three pre-season friendlies the Reds finally made their first competitive appearance at their new stadium and took to the pitch accompanied by fireworks and a snowstorm. The Reds were at full strength giving debuts to five of their new recruits. The Reds suffered an early setback in the 8th minute when hooker Wayne Godwin went off with a rib injury. He was replaced by Stuart Howarth. Shortly after it looked as though Castleford were going to have the honour of scoring the first try at the Salford City Stadium only for Kirk Dixon’s try to be disallowed following a forward pass. That honour fell to scrum-half Matty Smith who bounced off a tackle in the 18th minute before racing thirty yards to score. Daniel Holdsworth was surprisingly well wide with his conversion attempt (4-0). Castleford had a further try ruled out following a video referee decision after Vinny Anderson cleverly got himself under Adam Milner to prevent the hooker touching down in the 28th minute. Not long after the video referee ruled out a Holdsworth try, adjudging an obstruction in the build-up. Five minutes before the interval the Reds defence opened up to allow Rangi Chase to put full-back Richard Owen in for a try. Dixon converted for a 4-6 half-time lead. The teams had been fairly well-matched during the first forty minutes with Cas perhaps just edging it and they carried on where they left off in the second period when the Reds failed to gather an Owen bomb which winger Josh Griffin booted over the Reds try-line to pounce on to score. Dixon added a terrific conversion for a 4-12 lead. A great forty-yards run by Danny Orr came to nothing and a Reds half-chance went begging when Sean Gleeson dropped a Luke Patten pass. Castleford then surged into a 4-18 lead when the Reds defence fell asleep failing to deal with a Chase kick which was snapped up by Milner to score under the posts. Dixon added the simplest of kicks to put Cas firmly in command. With six minutes remaining the Reds showed a glimpse of what they were capable of when slick handling saw them sweep upfield with Matty Ashurst crashing over for his first try for the Reds. Holdsworth added the conversion to give Salford a sniff of a chance at 10-18. Those hopes proved to be short-lived as Cas came roaring back when Owen raced over for his second try. Dixon booted home his kick for a final score of 10-24. After their impressive showing against Wigan in the last of their three friendlies,Reds fans were expecting a performance to match the occasion but last season’s defensive frailties were still evident and they lacked creativity despite the industry of Matty Smith. The Castleford half-backs of Chase and Orr mastered the Artic conditions and their pack was more mobile than the Salford six. Coach Phil Veivers was disappointed with the outcome: "It was a bit frustrating,the conditions were the same for both sides but Castleford seemed to play them a little better than us. They controlled the ruck a lot better than we did and came through the middle pretty good. They won the arm wrestle and inched their way up-field. They scored two tries from kicks and the other two through our right edge so we've plenty of work to do there. There is some optimism. We scored two nice tries, had one disallowed in the first half and had four or maybe five opportunities to score more points but we weren't clinical enough." Veivers added that hooker Godwin had been taken to hospital with a rib injury. Due to problems with spam only SalfordOnline members can now leave comments. Becoming a member of SalfordOnline only takes a minute, just hit the red Join Us button at the top right hand side of the page to create your Personal account. Got a news story? Need help with publicity for an event in Salford? Send it to newsdesk@salfordonline.com or call the SalfordOnline newsdesk on 0161 789 5377. |
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