Sheffield v Salford.

I don’t know about you but when I think of Sheffield Eagles all that comes to mind is that fateful day at Headingley in 1998. Salford were so close to Wembley with an eight point lead but ended up losing 22-18. Steve Blakeley made a break right on the hooter but it wasn’t to be. It took me a long time to get over that defeat. I don’t think any defeat since has hit me that hard. 

League meeting’s between the two clubs have been fairly rare over the years. Sheffield Eagles were formed in 1984 just over forty years ago. The steel city has two very famous football clubs in Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday as well as being a hot bed for successful boxers. Despite being surrounded by sport the Eagles have enjoyed real success beating Wigan to lift the Challenge Cup at Wembley in 1998. After relegation from the top flight Sheffield have been a very well established Championship club. Former coach Mark Aston guided the club for around 20 years in two spells and also played over 400 games for the club. Sheffield merged with Huddersfield for the 2000 season but this didn’t last long and was never accepted by their loyal supporters. Aston helped form a new Sheffield club after the merger but they have continued with the history and tradition so a bit like Salford it’s the same club that’s kept its honours. I must admit I really don’t like the term ‘phoenix club’. It seems to be a new term these days that only applies to certain situations and clubs. In a way I think it’s disrespectful to supporters of the clubs they love.

The Huddersfield/Sheffield merge only lasted a season and Huddersfield became the Giants again. 

Sheffield Eagles took Bramley’s place in the Championship or the Ford premiership as it was called back then. The Eagles reached three consecutive Championship Grand finals between 2011 and 2013 winning two and losing one. They also won the 1895 cup in 2019 with an excellent performance against Widnes at Wembley.They’ve been regulars in the playoffs system and are a club to be admired by the way they are run. They have a very astute coach in Craig Lingard who in my opinion will coach in the top flight again in the near future. He’s a real student of the game with a wealth of knowledge and experience gained through his playing days with Batley. Lingard has also coached Batley, Keighley and Castleford. 

League away record.

Sheffield 5

Draws 3

Salford 2

2008 Sheffield 24 Salford 24

2000 Huddersfield/Sheffield 10 Salford 18

1999 Sheffield 26 Salford 26

1998 Sheffield 18 Salford 18

1997 Sheffield 30 Salford 12

1995 Sheffield 29 Salford 16

1993 Sheffield 28 Salford 22

1993 Sheffield 30 Salford 16

1990 Sheffield 17 Salford 12

1984 Sheffield 6 Salford 13

They played for both.

Simon Baldwin, Carl Briggs, Matty Costello, Damien Gibson, Ben Gledhill, Ben Hellewell, Brad Hepi, Will Hope, Gary Jack, Jordan James, Ben Jones-Bishop, Francis Leota, Scott Martin, Adam Neal, Gareth Owen, Sam Panapa, Nick Pinkney, Darren Shaw, Mitch Stringer, Jack Walker, Kris Welham and Kai Morgan.

A match to remember  Saturday 22nd May 1999.

Sheffield 26 Salford 26.

Thinking back to 1999 is was a pretty miserable time to be a Salford supporter. After last season’s heartbreak in the Challenge Cup semi final against Sheffield Eagles the club hadn’t really recovered. A run of ten league defeats at the start of the season had cost coach Andy Gregory his job. A narrow home defeat 30-38 against Leeds was then followed by a superb win over London at the Willows to get us off the mark under new coach John Harvey. This match away to Sheffield at the Don Valley stadium was a bit of a honeymoon period for the new man in charge. 

The Eagles had been a bit of a bogey team for us over the years but this game had everything if you wanted to be entertained. 

Australian three quarter Paul Carige had arrived with a big reputation at the start of 1999. He had played some good Rugby the previous season for Parramatta but for one reason or another he struggled to find form. This was probably his best performance in a Salford shirt scoring two tries. Martin Crompton and Steve Blakeley were half back partners but this duo never seemed to work that well together. Garen Casy came off the bench to kick two conversions. He had been a wonderful player for Wakefield in their promotion season of 1998 but he was another player that found adapting to top flight Rugby League pretty difficult. 

Salford’s other tries came from David Hulme and Mark Johnson. 

Martin Pearson scored a try and kicked five goals for the Eagles in this end to end clash. 

Salford went on to win the following week 38-18 against Hull and would win another four matches before the end of the season. Harvey managed to guide Salford to a 12th place finish out of the 14 teams in Super League that year. The bottom two were Hull and Huddersfield. 

The teams that day, 

Sheffield, Watson, Cardoza, Powell, Senior, Lovell, Hardy, Pearson, Laughton, Lawless, Shaw, Jackson, Turner, Doyle.

Subs, Thorman, Anderson, Baldwin, Molloy.

Salford, Thompson,Johnson, Littler, Broadbent, Carige, Blakeley, Crompton, Makin, Alker, Southern, Brown, Smith, Hulme.

Subs, Casey, Highton, Joe Faimalo, Esene Faimalo.

Attendance, 3,100.

Referee, Nick Oddy.

Sunday’s match.

It’s been a busy week for Dave Hewitt at Salford. Two new players have arrived from the struggling North Wales club. Cole Oakley and Joe Baldwin will strengthen the pack, Oakley is a back rower and Baldwin a hooker. 

Last weeks cup tie at Doncaster was difficult to watch but I thought their were positive performances particularly from Fin Yates and Shaun Costello. Yates has a terrific work rate and is improving all the time. Costello has got a it more to his game then just carting the ball in.

He’s got a good pair of hands and as a ball player he could be very useful. Lewis Pilling also made his debut and for a young player in a struggling team against a very powerful Doncaster side he definitely made his mark. Pilling showed some neat touches and as he gains confidence and experience he will be an exciting addition to the squad. 

Sheffield Eagles have Kai Morgan in their 2026 squad along with another former Salford player George Griffin. Griffin played over a hundred games for Salford and started in the back row for us in the 2019 Grand Final. Morgan made a good impression last season under very difficult circumstances at Salford under the nightmare regime of 2025. Morgan can play in the halves or at hooker and he has a very useful kicking game. 

It was announced this week that Sheffield have signed Widnes halfback Jordan Abdull on loan. Although he’s had his fair share of injuries Abdull is a very creative player with a clever kicking game. He’s also a very reliable goal kicker. Matty Marsh is an experienced fullback who started at Hull Kingston Rovers before moving on to York where he became a real prolific try scorer. 

Sheffield have won five games and lost three so far in the Championship and they were beaten away at Rochdale Hornets last Sunday in the 1895 cup. 

The action gets under way at 3pm

Safe travels and enjoy the game.

Paul Whiteside. 

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