Salford City Reds 5 Harlequins RL 2

The text message I'd been waiting for duly arrived at 9am on the Monday morning 10 days following our heatbreaker on Mersydive. The club had already announced a press conference to announce our new coach for 10am on that morning but Bobby was first out of the blocks and let me know that former St Helens, Gateshead, Hull FC & South Sydney supremo Shaun 'Bomber' McRae had signed a deal to the end of 2011. Whilst hardly a surprise I was still delighted, Shaun has a wealth of experience in Super League having won the title with Saints & performed a great job at both Gateshead & Hull and tying him to a long-term deal proved that he is as excited about our future plans after the move to Barton as we fans are. With a few days to go before our next game the new coach would have time to get his ideas across too.

A few days before the game, our spell of wonderful weather broke, big time. As a result the match was played in torrential rain & on a boggy surface. Open rugby was hardly likely to be the order of the day but it would turn out to be a dour tense affair though with still quite a lot to offer to the seasoned observer of the game, but tellingly it would prove to be just as tense & nerve fraying a game as the previous 2 had been.

A day off allowed me plenty of time to relax & get psyched for the game but we were pretty late in leaving the house to set off for Weaste so there was just time to have a quick couple of pints in the Con club before heading out to the ground. The game had been designate as the chairman's silver jubilee game & the shed was full of happy anniversary balloons & banners to celebrate our beloved Wilky who received a rapturous reception from the fans as he walked across the pitch pre-game. Bomber & Simms followed shortly after to similar ovations & then the teams were out and we were off.

A lovely move early on saw Dorn create some space for Wilshere but, as we all prepared to go mental, Tyrone Smith came across to make a superb saving tackle & the deadlock remained. The 2 players would again be instrumental midway through the 1st half when that wonderful Harlequins playmaker Mark McLinden came into the line to create a gap for Smith. Smith went clear & was running powerfully at Wilshere who suddenly lost his footing. As he fell to the floor & Smith tried to hurdle him, Wilshere just managed to get a part of his anatomy on Smith sending the big man spinning through the air before gravity took control bringing him crashing onto the turf with the ball jarring loose as a result. A fantastic comedy moment for all in attendance & a real let-off as far as we were concerned because without the fortune that we had it was difficult to see anything stopping Smith's progress to the line.

A penalty in front of the sticks gave Wilshere a chance to open the scoring which he duly took & the scoreline at the hooter would remain 2-0. The early moments of the 2nd half saw a spell of Salford pressure but a combination of wrong decisions and some excellent line defence by the Quins kept us out. Harlequins reaped their reward for their hard work when a Sykes penalty levelled the scores.

This spurred a good reaction from the Reds who would enjoy much more ball & territory for the remainder of the game without seriously threatening to cross the line. It was looking increasingly like a 1 pointer may be enough & sure enough with a little over 10 minutes remaining on the clock, Robbo slotted one over & we had the lead back. Another penalty from Wilshere shortly afterwards stretched the lead and although there were a few nervy moments in the final 10 minutes, our defence held firm to grab an ugly but absolutely crucial win.

So back to the Tavern where it was all smiles again as we looked back on Super League's first ever tryless encounter although not the lowest scoring game (another honour which we hold, winning our first ever SL game against Castleford 4-0 thanks to a Phil Coussons effort). The other source of amusement was seeing Bobby disturb Guardian writer Andy Wilson's quiet pint ruined by Bobby talking him through his various conspiracy theories & tactical ideas. Sorry Andy, lol! A good start to the McRae era though & we now looked forward to the visit to his old Hull stomping ground the following week with surprising optimism.