Rowley’s Devils in Giant leap for place in play-offs!
SALFORD coach Paul Rowley hailed a ‘really satisfying’ win as his side kept their play-off hopes alive with a 33-16 win over Huddersfield at the AJ Bell Stadium.
The Red Devils moved to within a point of sixth-placed Leeds in the Betfred Super League on the back of an impressive first-half display.
Salford scored five tries in the opening period through Ken Sio, Joe Burgess, Kallum Watkins, Ryan Brierley and Tim Lafai to build a 26-6 half-time lead.
However, the sin-binning of halfback Brodie Croft gave Huddersfield hope and they scored two tries at the start of the second half through Sam Hewitt to close the gap to 10 points.
Salford, though, finished strongly with a penalty and drop goal from Marc Sneyd as well as a last-minute try from Harvey Livett to close out victory.
Rowley said: “I thought our start was really important. Huddersfield are a very good side, but we wanted to start on our best foot. We got some points on the board then had a sin-bin which was really difficult to manage in this heat.
“It challenges the character of the players, but they managed it. We fully deserved the win against a good team.”
On the race for the play-offs, Rowley said: “It was important to stay in the pack. Everyone is saying they don’t look at the league, but, the truth is, we’re all looking at the league.
“Beating a team above us in the table is important and Huddersfield have been very, very consistent.
“Every week it feels like the other results don’t go our way, but we just have a chuckle about it. We don’t let it get us down.
“It’s been said we’ve got one of the hardest run in, but we only focus on week to week. We just crack on.
“We believe in what we do and what we’re about. To deliver what we did today was really satisfying.”
Former Salford boss Ian Watson admitted his Huddersfield team were undone by their poor start.
He said: “The first half was the root of all the problems.
“Salford didn’t do anything which we didn’t expect them to do and we’ve seen what they’ve done to Catalans and St Helens.
“Salford have a great home record and that had to be respected. In the first half we weren’t doing the right things – it was a hugely disappointing afternoon.”