Salford looking for the joy of six
SALFORD travel to Headingley tonight looking to record a sixth successive Betfred Super League victory – a run stretching back to the home win over Leeds in July.
The upturn in form since the arrival of Jackson Hastings and Joey Lussick has been sharp, but the Red Devils will be without inspirational halfback Hastings tonight as he serves the first of a two-match suspension for the high hit on Gareth O’Brien last weekend.
Victory would all-but guarantee safety for Salford, with 10 points in the Qualifiers considered to be the magic mark required to avoid the Million Pound Game.
But the club are targeting seven wins out of seven – an achievement Ian coach Watson admits would be more impressive than securing a spot in the Super 8s last year given the amount of adversity the Red Devils have faced this season.
“When we sold Gaz O’Brien, I thought we were putting ourselves in a precarious position and we needed to replace him, but we never did that,” said Watson.
“Players kept seeing players going out, but nobody coming in. In the back end of the year, we’ve been able to rectify that with Ed Chamberlain coming in, Greg Burke has come in and done a great job for us, and then Jackson, Joey and Jansin [Turgut] as well.
“We’d have liked to have had them earlier in the season and see where it could have taken us because I don’t think we would have been in the bottom four if we hadn’t sold Gaz O’Brien.
“But it will be a success from where we’ve come from, with the new owners coming in and the finances we’ve had.
“There’s a lot more stuff that we’ve had to face and deal with this year than anyone will ever know, so I think it will be a big success.”
The loss of Hastings is eased by the fact Jack Littlejohn is fit to return from a bicep injury.