Saints score 32 unanswered points to keep pressure on leaders
Three late St Helens tries secured the 32-10 win for Mike Rush’s men after Salford put up a brave performance for 75 minutes.
Jonny Lomax, Michael Shenton and Paul Wellens scored tries in the final minutes of the match as Saints came down from 10-0 down to win.
The game looked to be going either way as Salford made the most of the awful conditions to force errors from the St Helens side.
The City Reds certainly looked threatening in the first half, controlling the opening 20 minutes as both sides looked to get the opening try.
Vinne Anderson finally touched down for the City Reds, and shortly after Danny Williams celebrated his contract extension with a try of his own.
Chris Nero slipped Williams a back door pass 10 metres from Saints’ try line, opening up space for the winger.
St Helens were not out of it, as they looked to get back in the game. Lance Hohaia was penalised and had a try disallowed for a double movement. However the New Zealand international was responsible for setting up Saints’ first try of the match.
With only a few minutes until half time, Hohaia put a kick up in the air over the Salford in-goal. Josh Jones was able to catch the ball cleanly and just about managed to ground it to pull St Helens back into the match.
St Helens could have gone into half time level at the very least, but Jonny Lomax couldn’t collect an offload as Saints broke away in the final stages of the first half.
Lance Hohaia scored an early try in the second half to level the scores, before Tommy Makinson caused embarrassment for the Salford defenders.
A high St Helens kick was left by the Salford catchers, allowing Michael Shenton to collect the ball and feed Makinson to score close to the corner.
The game hung in Saints’ favour with a four point gap, but Salford did not give up. However when Lomax scored his try with seven minutes remaining, the floodgates opened and Saints scored two more tries before the game’s end.
Salford scores: T- Anderson, Williams. G- Holdsworth
St Helens scores: T- Jones, Hohaia, Makinson, Lomax, Shenton, Wellens. G- Makinson (2), Gaskell (2)
Salford: Patten; Broughton, Moon, Gleeson, Williams; Holdsworth, Smith; McPherson, Howarth, Sidlow; Ashurst, Anderson, Wild. Subs: Gledhill, Palea’aesina, James, Nero.
St Helens: Wellens; Makinson, Shenton, Jones, Meli; Hohaia, Lomax; Puletua,Roby, Laffranchi; Flannery, Soliola, Wilkin. Subs: McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Clough, Gaskell, Flanagan.
Referee: James Child
Half time: 10-6
Attendance: 5,447
Catalan sealed a thrilling 13-10 win over Hull KR
Sataimata Sa put the Catalan side on the board after nearly 15 minutes, but Rovers soon struck back with a Jake Webster try.
Rovers then scored on the hour as Scott Murrell crossed, but late in the game Clint Greenshields levelled the scores at 10-all.
Scott Dureau missed the conversion, but dropped a vital goal three minutes from time to give the Dragons a one point lead. His penalty in the final minute sealed the match.
