It was a glorious sunny afternoon in the city of Sheffield. The Eagles are due to move to a new stadium in the coming weeks but the facilities at the Steel City Stadium were really good. The main stand had a very healthy crowd in and most Salford supporters took position behind the sticks. 

Dave Hewitt gave debuts to Cole Oakley who started in the second row and Joe Baldwin who made the bench. Both signed permanent deals this week from North Wales Crusaders. Lewis Pilling started in the halves with the returning Toby Hughes. Joe Hartley was back in the centre after injury and Callum Green was fullback. 

Eagles coach Craig Lingard had Kai Morgan with new loan signing Jordan Abdull in the halves, George Griffin started at loose forward with the experienced Jack Bussey in the back row. 

Abdull made an immediate impact creating a try for Bussey before winger Ryan Miller scored the Eagles second try after eleven minutes, 10-0.

Joe Hartley tried a very inventive kick over the top and the wicked bounce almost came back to Salford but the Sheffield cover defence just about dealt with the danger. 

A very delicate kick into the in-goal area from Hughes created a neat try for Oakley on his debut. Hughes hit the post with the conversion, 10-4.

Abdull was directing the Eagles round the pitch and his influence on the match was there for all to see. After scoring that try Salford knocked on from the kick off. In the next set Abdull used his power to draw the defence before going over to score. Poor contact in defence led to another Eagles try that pushed them out to a 22-4 advantage. 

Abdull continued to pull the strings and some of Sheffield’s ball movement was terrific at times. Another clever Hughes kick set up Oakley but this time he was denied the try by the referee who said he didn’t ground the ball. 

Salford conceded a soft try just before the break when a high kick was palmed back into play before Morgan scooted over, 28-4 at the break. 

With a twenty four point deficit the second half looked a pretty daunting task for Salford but what we got was a very spirited performance. Sheffield got sloppy and started making mistakes which allowed Salford a chance to cause some damage. Shaun Costello laid on a try for Finlay Yates with a lovely timed flat pass. With Salford attacking the Eagles broke away after scooping up a loose kick with Billy Walkley racing away, 34-10.

Joe Baldwin impressed on debut and his pace around the ruck caused problems. He scored a well deserved try going over from dummy half in what was becoming a very entertaining and enjoyable match. 

With eighteen minutes remaining substitute Jimmy Beckett scored the home sides seventh try of the afternoon. You now got the feeling the last twenty minutes could end up a blow out score line. What we got was the polar opposite. Brad Dwyer put Ollie Garmston over with a top notch pass before going over for a try of his own. Hughes with his testing kicking game had really grown in confidence as the match had progressed. It was arguably his best performance in a Salford shirt. 

With the clock counting down Salford chanced their arm down the left edge with Garmston again on the attack. As the hooter sounded he took a nasty knock in a heavy collision.

A much improved second half display will give Dave Hewitt and the players plenty of confidence going into next week where they have a weekend with no match. I spoke to Hewitt after the match. He was in good spirits and eager to fix up the misdemeanours of the first half in training next week. The players will also be doing a bit of team bonding as they make up for the lack of preseason that they didn’t have in the winter.

Every week seems like a huge learning curve for this Salford side that wants to get better and improve. Hewitt is working well with the players and seems to be getting the best out of them as he slowly but surely moulds this team together week by week.

Sheffield 38 Salford 26.

Paul Whiteside.

Big thanks to Steve McCormick for the photos.