Wolves take it to the wire
Warrington 20 Salford 19
GEORGE WILLIAMS clinched a golden-point extra-time winner to underwrite his status as the new fans’ favourite at Warrington.
The England half-back twice thought he had clinched victory in the dying moments of normal time with two drop goals.
His first was cancelled out by a Tui Lolohea onepointer and his second was disallowed by the referee for blocking.
But he held his nerve to slot over an extra-time drop goal – his second one-point winner in six games for his new club.
Coach Steve Price said: “It just goes to show what a top player George is.
“He was ice cold with three pressure kicks.”
Stars
Wolves were already guaranteed third spot, and a home play-off game, and took the chance to rest several stars.
Second-bottom Salford twice took the lead with the first of Ken Sio’s brace and one from Lolohea.
Williams’ heroics ensure they go into Thursday’s final regular season game at play-off rivals Castleford with a win. But they will need to be much better than this when the knockout stages start.
Price added: “If we want to go further we cannot afford to be not building pressure. There are too many pressure releases in our game at the minute and we need to fix it.”
Matty Ashton, Matt Davis and Josh Charnley tries gave them a 16-12 lead but they wasted a stack of other chances.
Salford coach Richard Marshall beamed: “For a side sitting near the bottom to go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams was brilliant.”