Salford v Warrington. 

It was another bitter pill to swallow on Sunday afternoon. I don’t think many Salford supporters expected to win the match but to not score a point again made it a pretty miserable day. I can’t think of one highlight in the match that made me cheer or smile. 

It’s over one hundred days now since our only league win of the season and with eleven games left it promises to be a very difficult few months. 

Our visitors this Friday have had a pretty inconsistent year so far. Warrington came so close to glory at Wembley in the Challenge Cup final and if I am honest I thought they were the better side against Hull Kingston Rovers. In the Super League however it’s been a different story. If you look at the squad the Wolves have to pick from it’s always very strong. Coach Sam Burgess has strengthened with the signing of Marc Sneyd from Salford and Sam Stone also joined a few weeks ago. 

I always think of Warrington as a glamour club. With the greatest respect a champagne club if you like. That said the last time they managed to win the top flight competition in rugby league was 1955. They did win the league leaders shield in recent years but haven’t been League Champions for seventy years which is a strange thing when you consider how many finals they’ve been in. 

Salford have gone almost fifty years now without a major trophy but we’ve won the championship twice since Warrington’s last success. 

What makes Warrington such an attractive club to sign for then? Over the last twenty years since moving out of Wilderspool to the new stadium the Wolves have attracted some huge names from across the world of rugby league. Test players from Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. Star players from rival super league clubs and just about any top player that’s available Warrington are more often than not in the running. A lot of this is down to how the club is run off the pitch. I can only go off my own experience when I’ve visited but everything seems to run like clock work. The owners and people in charge work respectfully and professionally. Despite the years of waiting for a league title success in the various cup competitions over recent decades has always been fairly steady. 

Since 1974 Warrington have appeared in eleven Challenge cup finals and won the competition five times. On top of that the club have had success in the Premiership competition, the Lancashire cup and the various formats of the league cup which has had several names, Player’s No.6/John Player, Regal Trophy. Salford’s success has been very modest compared to that of the Wolves but as I said earlier the Championship is the trophy Warrington continue to chase and so far this season it looks unlikely they will achieve it. 

Sam Burgess’s main focus will be a top six finish then as we’ve seen in recent years good form at that time of the year can really put the cat amongst the pigeons.

Super League home record.

Salford 14

Draws 0

Warrington 15

1997 Salford 26 Warrington 14

1998 Salford 14 Warrington 25

1999 Salford 22 Warrington 26

1999 Salford 42 Warrington 26

2000 Salford 31 Warrington 12

2001 Salford 26 Warrington 18

2002 Salford 31 Warrington 18

2004 Salford 18 Warrington 37

2004 Salford 6 Warrington 32

2005 Salford 42 Warrington 10

2006 Salford 35 Warrington 34

2007 Salford 32 Warrington 34

2007 Salford 26 Warrington 32

2009 Salford 18 Warrington 16

2010 Salford 10 Warrington 27

2011 Salford 0 Warrington 60

2012 Salford 48 Warrington 24

2013 Salford 4 Warrington 46

2014 Salford 12 Warrington 28

2015 Salford 16 Warrington 34

2016 Salford 30 Warrington 31

2017 Salford 24 Warrington 14

2018 Salford 6 Warrington 22

2019 Salford 22 Warrington 6

2020 Salford 20 Warrington 18

2021 Salford 18 Warrington 62

2022 Salford 14 Warrington 32

2023 Salford 24 Warrington 20

2024 Salford 17 Warrington 12

They played for both.

Here are a few players to wear the red of Salford and the primrose and blue of Warrington.

Vinny Anderson, Richie Barnett, Steve Blakeley, Martin Crompton, John Duffy, Phil Ford, Martin Gleeson, Andy Gregory, Danny Halliwell, Neil Harmon, Alan Hunte, David Highton, Danny Lima, Tyrone McCarthy, Francis Maloney, Adrian Morley, Chris Morley, Ben Murdoch Masila, Richie Myler, Adam Neal, Gareth O Brien, Rob Parker, Stefan Ratchford, Stuart Reardon, Ian Sibbit, Kevin Tamati, Mike Wainwright, Lama Tasi, Luke Yates and John Wilshere.

A match to remember Friday 29th June 1997.

Salford 26 Warrington 14.

After promotion at the end of 1996 Salford took the Super League by storm in the early stages of 1997. League form saw Andy Gregory’s Reds riding high in the Table and also progress through the Challenge Cup beating top flight opposition all the way to the Semi Final. A new competition involving all the Super League Europe and Australian teams began, The World Club Challenge. Salford had just returned from a tough trip to Australia were they had fought hard against Adelaide Rams and North Queensland Cowboys but both games had ended in defeat.

Warrington were visitors to The Willows as Salford looked to get their season back on track. Nathan McAvoy scored a try in the early stages before defence from both teams put a halt to any points scoring. It was a real tussle of the forward packs but Salford’s ageing forwards set the platform for another McAvoy try just before the break. Steve Blakeley made now mistakes with the conversions to give the home side a 14-0 half time lead.

Warrington responded at the start of the second half building pressure. Young Kiwi star Nigel Vagana raced in to reduce the deficit before veteran winger Mark Forster scored a trademark try to put the Wolves right back in the contest.

Salford managed to hold their nerve, Phil Coussons finished off a lovely move to reinstate the points advantage. With just nine minutes remaining fans favourite Fata Sini powered over to put the game to bed with a nice try. Warrington scored a consolation try in the dying seconds from a promising young player named Paul Sculthorpe.

The teams that day:

Salford,

Broadbent, Coussons, Rogers, Mcavoy, Sini, Blakeley, Lee, Platt, Edwards, Eccles, Savelio, Faimalo, Burgess.

Subs, Martin, Watson, Forber, Southern

Warrington,

Penny, Roper, Finau, Vagana, Forster, Shelford, Briers, Mann, Swann, Stevens, Hulme, Tatupu, Sculthorpe

Subs, Henare, Wainwright, Geritas, Thorniley

Referee: John Connolly

Attendance: 3,477

Friday’s match.

It’s been a tricky job this season writing these previews and at times it’s been hard to be positive. I thought the second half last Sunday against St.Helens was arguably the worst forty minutes of the season. Thinking back to the late 90s and early 2000s we seemed light years behind teams like Wigan, St.Helens and Leeds. Over the last decade though it’s been fantastic to compete and beat these teams on a number of occasions and not only that we’ve beat them in their own backyards. Throughout 2025 though we’ve slipped away and lost that ground that we gained. It’s going to take a lot of work to rebuild the team and replace the players we’ve lost. If you look at the team that won away at Saints on that glorious night in 2024 when we ended forty four years of hurt and compare it to the team that played the same fixture on Sunday it’s been absolutely decimated. Ten players out of the seventeen that night have left the club and with Nene Macdonald missing that makes it eleven. 

What can we expect this Friday night? I attended the after match press conference against Saints on Sunday and one question that was put to Paul Rowley was “do you have any players returning from injury”. Rowley was quick to point out that the only players currently out who will return in the near future are Joe Mellor and Loghan Lewis. Shane Wright will miss the remainder of the season with a pectoral injury.

Rowley will have to go with the players at his disposal now and I think the most disappointing thing about last Sunday was that the squad we had available was one of the strongest looking for good number of weeks. I think that’s why Rowley was so disappointed speaking after the match.

Salford need a response on Friday against Warrington. It’s stating the obvious but we aren’t scoring enough points to even compete in matches. What we’ve seen in recent home games and especially the match against Wigan was a very desperate and dogged defensive effort. That’s what the supporters will want to see on Friday night and if we get enough field position to threaten Warrington then that will definitely help. 

Like most teams that have played Salford this season you would expect the Wolves to attack early and try to get the game sewn up in the first quarter. 

Joe Shorrocks will return from his one match suspension and that will be a big boost to the pack.

George Williams will be expected to partner Marc Sneyd in the halves for the Wolves. These two can cause all sorts of damage with Sneyd’s kicking game and the brilliant finishing of Williams. In the pack Wire have lots of power with the likes of Paul Vaughan, Luke Yates and Lachlan Fitzgibbon.

It’s always best to finish on a positive note and I am very hopeful we will see a much improved performance in front of a home crowd at the Salford Community stadium. Every week the bookmakers have been giving us ridiculous odds and huge starts on the handicap. Perhaps one week things will click and what a confidence boost that would be.

The action gets underway at 8pm. Safe travels and enjoy the match.

Paul Whiteside. 

Big thanks to Steve McCormick for the photos and the Salford match day programme.