Salford slip past Huddersfield
Salford have secured their first two points of the season with a hard-fought 30-20 victory against Huddersfield at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Ian Watson’s men took an early two-point lead inside nine minutes, Gareth O’Brien slotting the penalty after Greg Johnson was held down by Huddersfield’s Sebastine Ikahihifo.
Jermaine McGillvary, who scored two tries last week in the win over Widnes, opened the scoring for the Giants against Salford. The England winger dived across in the corner after a raking pass from Ryan Hinchcliffe in the centre.
The visitors were behind for all of four minutes, Junior Sa’u evading the challenge of McGillvary before crossing over. O’Brien nailed the conversion to give the Red Devils an 8-4 lead with 23 minutes gone.
The Red Devils fullback maintained a 100% kicking record in the first half, slotting another penalty right on the interval to make it 10-4.
Salford started the second half as they finished the first, O’Brien benefitting after Michael Dobson’s 40/20 before adding another four-pointer.
Johnson looked to have dived over for his second try of the match, but it was later disallowed by the video referee after he was ruled to be in touch before grounding the ball.
Just as Salford appeared to be opening a sizeable cushion on the scoreboard the Giants were back within two points of their opponents, after a pair of tries from Alex Mellor in as many minutes.
Going into the final quarter, O’Brien continued to play a key role for the Red Devils, notching his second try of the evening before nailing another conversion to put Salford two scores ahead.
Ukuma Ta’ai set up a dramatic final ten minutes, taking Brough’s pass before helping to reduce the deficit to 22-20.
But then Josh Jones put some breathing space between the two sides into the last five minutes with a brilliant individual drive, going through six defenders to the whitewash.
O’Brien ensured Salford would be going home with all two points after converting another penalty a minute before full-time.