Salford City Reds 24 Hull Kingston Rovers 30

The term "a massive game" is regularly trotted out in the lead ups to sporting contests, but rarely has the phrase seemed so fitting. Without a doubt this one was huge. Still a point adrift at the bottom (but no longer with a game in hand), this fixture provided us with a chance to move off the relegation place for the 1st time since April, surely the lads would be bang up for this one. I know I was, I could barely sleep in the build up to the game, constantly worrying about what the outcome would mean to our future. A chance encounter with Mal Alker in the Trafford Centre 48 hours prior to kick-off eased my nerves slightly as Mal seemed a whole lot more relaxed about the game than I was. Nevertheless, I had to take a half-day for this game, quite a lot of beer was going to be needed to calm the nerves.

After a quick one in the Eccles Cross, I took a tram to the Quays to meet up with the lads in Exchange bar. A couple of decent games of killer followed as I proceeded to make the cue appear like a wand in my hand, taking the winnings gleefully (one particularly nice pot lead to Bobby proclaiming "he's rolling back the years here Yorkie")! After that we headed to the Quay House for a couple more beers & some time on the quiz machine before taking the tram back to Weaste & the short walk to the ground.

Arriving in the area with so long still to go to kick-off, we spotted Luke Dorn & Haggy in a car at the lights & attempted to gee them up a little earlier roaring encouragement across the street to
them. One thing was for certain, with thousands of KR fans expected to make the journey across, we would need to get behind the team big-style tonight. The church hall was relatively empty when we arrived & got our drinks but within 30 minutes the queue for the bar stretched out of the front door so we decided that it was time to move on. The Tavern wasn't allowing away fans in (which given the tales that were flying round of trouble in The Weaste may have been a smart move) so that seemed the obvious option.

After a quick pint in the Tav it was time to make our way into the ground. The shed was filling up nicely & so was the North Stand end with hordes of KR supporters, all of which served to exacerbate the butterflies in my belly. There were a few team changes evident with Hodgy & Highto back fit & Leuluai added to the bench despite having only arrived 2 days prior. Both sides had their moments in the early exchanges but it was the Reds who broke the deadlock with a long ball from Robbo allowing Barnett to claim his first Salford try out wide before Wilshere added a great kick.

This seemed to relax us a little & we then had a good spell of pressure culminating in Coley failing to ground the ball under pressure. As KR looked to take a quick tap, Coley caught the ball and ran back to the defensive line with it, sin-binning. It would prove costly, when he returned 10 minutes later we were 10-6 in arrears. The lively Webster made a break & fed O'Neill who despite losing his footing managed to scramble to his feet & just ground the ball. Then Coke stepped through the defence & stretched over to get the ball down.

Hull KR missed another couple of opportunities before, against the run of play, a lovely ball by Haggerty put Finnigan clear & over. Wilshere's conversion gave us the lead back which we would take into half-time with us. The feeling was that we had to play better in the 2nd half but that at least we'd looked more like scoring than the visitors when we had the ball in the red zone. Surely with all that was at stake we would step up & take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Sadly the desire in the 2nd half came from the visitors who spent most of the game camped in our half. We held out for just 5 minutes before once again Webster was the provider for O'Neill to regain the advantage. A horrendous 5 minute spell saw firstly Lennon & then Dyer go in for soft tries for the Yorkshiremen and at 28-12 we looked beaten. We got a glimmer when Robbo kicked through a napping Rovers defensive line for Moule to touch down before Cooke's penalty left us still 12 points behind. With the seconds ticking down a good break from Wilshere saw Hodgson go over out wide & with barely no time to set himself, Wilshere added a fantastic conversion to leave us back within 6 and about 1 minute left to work the miracle comeback. Sadly, from the kick-off, Korki would knock on & the dream would fall flat.

There was no shortage of tears on the Shed that night. The importance of the game was lost on no-one & walking round to the Tavern I felt physically sick. No-one was even in the mood for gallows humour after this game, just a horrible air of resignation to our fate & seeing Parky spending most of the night with his head on the bar too disconsolate to even speak, I could only feel anger & resentment at the players who had once again failed to perform when the situation demanded at the very least a bit of pride. We hadn't even summoned up that, pitiful.

Hull FC 48 Salford City Reds 26

And so we very quickly revert to type. The re-arranged game had not been visited with the same optimism as might have been if the original game had taken place 4 weeks earlier when we were still in the grip of a post-Harrison mini-revival. We'd had a couple of poor performances since then to bring us crashing back earthwards & Hull had started to show signs of re-discovering last season's form so the long journey east was made in far greater hope than expectation. The club had announced another new signing in the week with the capture of Cronulla Sharks forward Philip Leuluai (younger brother of Hull legend James & uncle of Leeds' Kylie and Wigan's Thomas) but his arrival in the UK would be a few days away so the lineup was to be the same as last weeks huge win.

The previous weekend had been rounded off nicely by Warrington doing us a favour and putting 60 on Hull KR on their own patch and the confidence factor of getting out of the mire was rising by the day. What we all wanted to see was a good performance to give us a heart for the visit of Hull KR the following Friday.

A lateish train was boarded at Piccadilly so a few of us opted for some cans on the 2 hour journey to Hull which was livened by banter about the various events in the News of the Screws. On arrival we made the short walk to the Admiral of the Humber for a couple before collaring some taxis to take us up to the pubs by the ground. Against the odds for this July it was a nice sunny day so we took our beers out onto the streets & prepared for the 80 minutes ahead. A quick beer on the concourse & then time to get behind the lads for the return to the KC of not only McRae but Saxton and Barnett.

The game started quite well for us with us managing to force an early drop-out & put some pressure on the hosts, it was to be a false dawn. Just 5 minutes in Horne fed the excellent Manu for the opening try & almost immediately the scorer made another break before feeding the youngster Hall who threw away the opportunity with the line begging. It would be a temporary reprieve as Tommy Lee broke & this time it was Horne who was on hand to finish the move before Hall broke feeding Graeme Horne whose smart pass put Manu in. Then some weak tackling failed to stop Manu before Lee kicked through for Hall to score. Another Richard Horne effort after good work by Tickle left us 26-0 down after just 25 minutes.

To our credit though, we didn't give up and with the only cheers coming from the Salford end having been those that greeted Catalans' tries against Wigan in the cup semi-final, the 1st half ended far more positively with Wilshere and Moule crossing. Early on in the 2nd half, Moule grounded Robbo's kick & we were back within 10 points at 26-16. That would be as good as it got as tries by Sing, Radford & Hall eased Hull back to a position of safety. We still showed some resistance though as Luke Dorn scored a try that was worth the admission fee alone before Finnigan was put under the sticks to reduce the arrears further. Fittingly though the impressive Hull outfit had the final word as Whiting went over at the death. All that remained then was to watch the final minutes of Catalans; stunning win on the TVs in the concourse.

With most people choosing to head home straight after the game, Paul & I headed back to The Eagle where we'd enjoyed a good laugh with a few of the locals after last year's game. Most were quite complimentary to the Reds of course with them being desperate for us to get rid of their cross-city neighbours and their kind words were of-course well received. The jukebox in the boozer was quality so we put a few quid in to enjoy some choonage before heading back on the 9pm train to Leeds where a short wait provided me with a train back home.

Salford City Reds 14 Bradford Bulls 10

Sometimes someone says something that's so corny & cliched that you feel an overwhelming urge to punch them, not pause to consider that overused hackneyed phrases may be overused for the simple fact that there's a lot of truth in them. One such phrase came out when I needed a leak a few minutes into this game. Stood at the urinal & with the game still scoreless, the trap next to me was occupied by a familiar face, I don't know his name but he's a mate of Ordsall Paul, and as he had been on holiday the week previously he asked me if the debacle at Warrington had been as bad as many had said. "It was awful mate, we really hit rock bottom last week, we look absolutely sunk on that evidence", I informed him, "Well, you know sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can start to climb back up", he replied. I don't know what my reply was but I think it may have been along the lines of "Bollocks". After this game I would have ample time to reflect that he may just have been bang on the moolah.

It was, in truth, a game that none of us had really been looking forward to. After the crushing defeat of the previous week, coupled with a couple of very impressive Bulls performances of late, the result seemed a no-brainer if ever there was one. At least the club had reacted to the mauling at the HJ & moved to sign 3 players in advance of the deadline, snapping up Warrington's Michael Wainwright (for his 2nd spell at the club) and Richie Barnett together with Castleford's out of favour Tommy Saxton. To be fair nobody was dancing in the streets of Salford at these signings but it had to be better than doing nothing & McRae had worked with Saxton & Barnett at Hull so obviously thought there was something there to bring them to The Willows.

After doing a spot of of overtime (this was a Saturday match) and taking a mate's car down to Alan (Debbie's husband) for a quick quote on repairs, it was gone 3pm before I made it to the Eccles Cross for a pre-match refresher. Stayed there with Nic, Janice & Debbie for an hour or so before heading to the church hall to meet up with the lads who'd been pre-matching it on the Quays. After a couple of beers & a quick read of RAW issue 2 (still excellent) we made our way through the rain-soaked streets to the ground.

As expected, our new boys were drafted straight into the starting line-up with Luke Dorn finally being dropped to the bench. Although good defence would characterise the 1st half, both sides had chances to open the scoring most notably when Tupou's effort was chalked off for a forward pass to our great relief. Midway through the half we managed to work some space on the right which Robbo exploited with a smart kick to the corner where Viane just managed to ground the ball without touching the sideline (as confirmed by the Video Ref). It left Wilshere with a nasty conversion which hit the post flush on its side before dropping over the bar. After that I couldn't help but think that it may be our day after all.

If anything, the try seemed to spur on our already valiant efforts & with Wainwright & Korkidas bettering the Bulls pack we started to exert more control in the final 20 minutes of the half. Wilshere milked a penalty for obstruction which he slotted home for 8-0 before missing another penalty kick just on the hooter but still our spirits were raised by a 8-0 half-time lead & the manner of the performance in the 1st half.

Most of us expected the start of the 2nd period to bring a response from the Bulls & sadly we were proved correct. Deacon (who had been completely outplayed by Robbo) kicked a smart 40/20 & the Bulls quickly worked it out to the left for Tupou to force his way through Wilshere's attempted tackle & narrow the gap with Deacon adding a superb conversion. That clearly was the Bulls blueprint to get back in control of the game as shortly afterwards, Tupou was put through on the left again & bulldozed through Saxton to score, thankfully Deacon couldn't repeat the feat this time round. 8-10.

To be honest, although we stemmed the tide after that with some excellent defence, we never really looked like getting back in front until with about 15 minutes to go we worked a 6th tackle play left just inside our own half. There appeared to be little on but we kept the ball alive until it reached Aaron, Aaron Moule just in front of the shed. The Aussie maestro shimmied & stepped leaving St Hilaire stood rigid as he sped round the outside of him and raced downfield. As cover came across he fed the ball inside to the supporting Dorn who in turn fed it on to Robbo who raced away and slid under the sticks to restore our lead, wonderful try & easy extras for Wilshere to add.

Bradford started to lose their heads at this point & gave us a few penalties (Solomona being the chief culprit) which allowed us to run down some of the clock & look unthreatened for most of the remaining minutes. However, with the final seconds counting down, Deacon kicked left into our 20. Viane seemed to hesitate and to our horror James Evans nipped in to claim the ball. As cover came across he threw out a desperate pass towards Tupou which thankfully didn't reach his intended target & by the time he'd gathered the loose ball he had a foot in touch & the waving flag of the touch judge brought about wild celebrations as we got the ball back & saw out the remaining seconds.

It was time for some celebrating now and the 6pm kick-off meant a couple hours more drinking time than after a Friday night game. So we took advantage by celebrating in the Tav for an hour or so (most of which was spent in trying to get served) before getting a minibus to the Height for a few more sherbets in the Welly where Karl served up the chant of the night; "The answer my friend is Barnett on the wing" and Solly took advantage of possibly the world's best smoking area (with plasma screens up to watch the boxing in a patio-heated environment). The mood was lightened even further by a phone call from Buddha which allowed us all to congratulate our cult hero on a fine performance. As I said to him at the time, whatever the outcome in September, no-one will ever forget the roller-coaster ride which is this season. At drinking-up time we headed our separate ways with Bobby & Kate getting out of the cab at ours to have a few more drinkies & watch the re-run of the game on Sky. Even Bobby's fear of dogs couldn't keep him out (although we may not have told him about the 3 Rottweilers until he was actually in the house).