Salford City Reds 14 Huddersfield Giants 12

The story of this post for me has its logical beginnings in Pipex's offices in South Manchester on the Tuesday morning before the game. Reading the Pipex website between calls as is my usual routine I noticed a new headline on the sports page; "Harrison sacked by Reds". Excitedly clicking on the link to check it was relevant (as a RL story on our website is as rare as rocking-horse excrement) I discovered that indeed after 5 years, Rhino had been given the Spanish archer. Now, I have a lot of respect for Karl as a person & as a coach so it's with a sense of shame that I admit my reaction was to shout a huge "YESSSSS!" which resounded around the office. The reason being that, for whatever reason, as long as Karl stayed in charge there was only one possible outcome to the season; relegation. The new man would have a huge job to do but at least we now had a sniff of a chance. In the short-term that man would be Steve Simms with our Director of Football forced to step into the caretaker role, still assisted by Jimmy Lowes despite his shocking reaction to the barracking the fans had given after the French farce the week previously.

Speculation in the lead up to the game would suggest that Shaun McRae was the early favourite for the job & the big Aussie had flown into England on the eve of the game to start some summarising work for Sky. The fact that he was at the game alongside Simms would do nothing to quell the speculation.

The teams came out before the TV cameras to a backdrop of one of Mike's banners which read "Thank You Karl", sentiments that everyone would readily echo. From the start it appeared that Simms was at least willing to mix up the failed formula as Wilshere started at full-back with Hodgy reverting to his favoured wing position. It was also noticeable that when the (still on a long unbeaten run) Giants had the ball, Luke Dorn was defending very wide out to take him away from being targetted by the Giants pack. It worked, we were mag-fucking-nificent. A thrilling 1st half saw none of the fine attacking football that both sides served up rewarded until just before the break when a move inside the Giants 20 saw Dorn put through a slight opening to feed Buddha for the opening try. The extras were missed so the teams went in at 4-0 at the break.

Having waited so long for points in the 1st half the 2nd would be completely the opposite with the Giants pulling level almost immediately with stand-in centre Wild scoring from the ever dangerous Drew's pass. A Thorman penalty from in front of the sticks for a high-tackle then put Huddersfield in front. The quality of what followed needed to be seen to be believed; Wilshere collected a good kick to the goal-line & evaded a couple of would-be tacklers before being caught. He managed to sneak out an extraordinary off-load to the supporting Hodgson who raced 70 metres away from Brad Drew to touch down under the sticks & leave most of the Shed covered in beer.

Soon after, Stuart Littler ran the ball away from our 20 zig-zagging cross-field before another off-load sent Buddha away. As Buddha was caught he passed right to Dorn who crossed the halfway line before returning the ball to Buddha. As the supporting Giants got back, Buddha looked right again to feed Gray Viane to go the last 20 metres to complete a sensational try. More beer covered me as the Shed went absolutely ape-shit.

The rest of the game was of a similar high quality & our pack were immense in standing firm & keeping us with the advantage. But it wouldn't be Salford without some nail-biting & just when we thought the points were safe Paul Reilly squeezed in at the corner before Thorman's excellent kick meant a nervy finish. As the clock ticked-down on the big-screen & Robbo punted the ball dead to bring the hooter, the jubilation on & off the pitch was unmistakeable. There's still a long way to go but at least the green shoots of a recovery were finally visible.

After staying to roar the team off the pitch, I headed out towards the Tavern with a huge daft grin across my face. Robbo's missus spotted me & ran over & the hug we shared this time was altogether happier. Further along the Shed I spotted Janice & Kirsty who both ran over with similar daft grins on their faces. What a difference. As we headed through the tunnel, Buddha was still outside the changing rooms with his little 'un. I told him what a great game he'd had & we shook hands still with our faces plastered with daft grins. When I finally got to the Tav, everyone's face told the story. For once we were laughing & joking all night as the beer flowed. More of the same please Reds.