Bitterly cold afternoons stood at the tea hut end of Hilton Park seemed a distance memory as both teams came out to warm up on a warm and fine Friday evening at the Leigh Sports Village. It’s a fantastic venue and the atmosphere had been bubbling for a while with an excellent Oasis tribute band strumming away to plenty of the Mancunians big hits.

Both teams had been in some real fearsome matches lately and that had took a lot out of the players leaving quite a few players sidelined with injuries. 

Salford coach Paul Rowley was forced to make changes to the side that beat Huddersfield a week ago. The injured Joe Mellor was replaced at hooker by Cade Cust. King Vuniyayawa, Amir Bourouh, Ben Hellewell and Chris Hankinson all returned to the bench.

The Leopards started Matt Moylan at fullback with Ben McNamara and Adrian Lam in the halves. Robbie Mulhern returned in the pack with Ed Chamberlain making the bench after his short loan spell with Hull FC. 

Leigh started the match on the front foot and when a Salford mistake gave the home side an attacking opportunity they took it with both hands. Umyla Hanley scoring a try out wide which Moylan converted. 

Josh Charnley finished superbly to touch down in the corner. The video referee checked it and awarded the try. 

Trailing 12-0 Salford needed a response. Kallum Watkins burst through and kicked for Ryan Brierley. The Red Devils forced a drop out and on the next play Brierley snatched a try which Sneyd converted to half the deficit. Jack Ormondroyd left the field with a head knock and he didn’t return. This was another blow to Salford’s tired looking pack. 

The Leigh packed continued to dominate and every time the Leopards moved the ball wide they looked so dangerous. Two tries either side of half-time put the game to bed as a contest. Hanley grabbed his second just before the break and Charnley made it a brace of tries going in for his three hundredth career try moments into the second half.

The Leopards continued to take the game to their jaded visitors and two more tries followed. Davis went in before Brad Dwyer darted through some soft defence.

Game star Moylan fielded a kick in his own in goal area before weaving his way through the Salford defence to make a good forty yard break. Lachlan Lam took control to score Leigh’s seventh try, 40-6.

Tim Lafai got the games final try with a nice individual effort showing real determination.

It was a night to forget for the Red Devils who never really got going. Injuries are starting to take their toll on Paul Rowley’s squad especially in the pack but Leigh deserve a lot of credit. They were by far the better side in every department. They played a high tempo game with their pack on the front foot very early in the game and Salford never recovered. 

The Red Devils now have just over two weeks before their next match at home to Wigan and hopefully this will give the squad a chance to recover from what had been a bruising and tough few weeks. 

Leigh 40 Salford 12.

Paul Whiteside.

Big thanks to Steve McCormick for the photos.