Salford City Reds Reserves 30 Saints Reserves 46 – Saturday 13th February 2010
There was drama at The Willows in this Reserve Team Friendly match. Those present, witnessed no fewer than 14 tries, 10 goals and 5 sin binnings. Saints’ Reserve Team Head Coach took the opportunity to field no fewer than 22 players in this encounter as they attempted to put their defeat against Keighley Cougars 1st Team behind them.
The teams lines up as follows:
Salford Reserves:
1. Lewis Palfrey, 2. Adam Clay, 3. Imad Nasir, 4. Toby Adamson, 5. Eddie Vaughan, 6. Tom Whitehead, 7. Marc Sneyd, 8. Lee Jewitt, 9. Marlon Alker, 10. Adam Sidlow, 11. Ben Wood, 12. Stuart Littler, 13. Jack Spence
Subs, 14. Gareth Owen, 15. Paul Steele, 16. Ben Burrows, 17. Mathew Haggerty, 18. Andy Morris, 19. Richard Lepori, 20. Will Hope
St. Helens Reserves:
1. Jamie Foster, 2. Tom Makinson, 3. Paul Johnson, 4. Jack Bradbury, 5. Tom Armstrong, 6. Lee Gaskell, 7. Jamie Ellis, 8. Andy Yates, 9. Karl Ashall, 10. Ste Lucas, 11. Andrew Dixon, 12. Warren Thompson, 13. Matty Ashurst
Subs, 14. Josh Cullen, 15. Scott Hale, 16. Shaun Magennis, 17. Liam Gilchrist, 18. Carl Forster, 19. Tommy Johnson, 20. Dave Sutton, 21. Ste Neild, 22. Billy Sheen
An 11.30am kick off ensured it was a very early start for me. I was opening up at Knowsley Road at 8.00am in order to put up the kit and was joined by fellow Kitman Alan Knowles alias ‘Knoller’. Early season matches are always a tad more nerve wracking as we make doubly sure we have packed everything and the inclusion of 22 players makes the job that little more complicated as we are usually only geared up for 17.
Saturday was a good day and we loaded up the bus just in time for the 9.15am leave. At Salford, the dressing rooms were laid out and the players changed for the game.
The match itself was dramatic to say the least. The City Reds started off on fire and raced to a 24-0 lead in as many minutes. They were playing well whilst Saints were a little off colour. After a half hour they seemed to be tiring and St. Helens, rejuvenated by the introduction of debutant and former Warrington Wizards hooker, Billy Sheen hit back. With a much faster and more effective distribution, the Saints’ offence clicked into gear and they were rewarded by three fine tries in a great 5 minute period.
Lee Gaskell broke the Salford line to score the first and impressive work by Shaun Magennis and Carl Forster created the field position for Gaskell to step off his right foot, straighten up, breeze through the City Reds’ defensive line and round the Lewis Palfrey to score both his and Saints second try. With ‘Fozz’ (Jamie Foster converting both Saints were on the front foot and a huge Liam Gilchrist drive created Saints’ 3rd try when he fed Andrew Dixon who broke a tackle to score a thoroughly deserved try. Fozz’s 3rd goal brought Saints back within six and the gap could have been reduced yet more, before the break, if Tom Makinson’s try, right on the whistle, had not been ruled out for him being adjudged to have been slightly offside. At the interval, Salford led 24-18.
Some harsh truths were discussed during the break as the Saints’ Coaching Staff discussed the match with the players. I will seldom talk about the contents of the half time pep talks as I believe that the Dressing Room is where they are best kept. I will add that on this occasion the lads did receive a proverbial kick up the backside.
Salford began the 2nd half as they had started the 1st with a converted try in their first set of six pouncing on a dropped ball from the kick off. Saints’ already reduced to 12 men due to the sin binning of Matty Ashurst for persistent foul play late in the 1st half, found their numbers further depleted by Billy Sheen also being sent to the cooler after a miss timed tackle became a trip. For four long minutes Saints played with 11 men yet amazingly, not only did they hold their own, the actually started to exert some pressure on the Salford defence.
Fozz became an emergency hooker and it was he who clever set up Andrew Dixon to cross for his 2nd try after a fine break down the left. A fourth conversion reduced the arrears back to six some sterling work by Liam Gilchrist and Carl Forster put Saints back in the ascendancy. A Jamie Foster 40-20 gave St. Helens a great field position and from the resultant scrum, Matty Ashurst, having returned from the ‘bin’ created a fine try on the right for Tom Armstrong. Fozz’s fifth conversion tied the scores at 30 all. Saints were very much on top and with parity restored in terms of numbers, they began to dominate. On a rare Salford attack a long speculative pass was plucked from the air by Lee Gaskell and he raced 90 metres to complete his hat trick of tries. Tommy Johnson then finished off a fine move to score Saints 7th try and Jamie Foster maintained his 100% record with the boot.
Salford were very tired at this point and their discipline suffered. In the last eight minutes they were to have three players dispatched to the sin bin ensuring they were down to 12 men for 5 minutes and reduced to 10 for the last three. It was during these last few moments that Saints saved their best try of the day as Paul Johnson’s unconverted try in the corner finished off an outstanding team try that had passed trough several pairs of hands during its 90 metre passage. The final score was Salford Reserves 30 St. Helens Reserves 46.
Saints’ star performers were Andrew Dixon and Matty Ashurst with Liam Gilchrist also great with the ball in hand. Scott Hale, Liam Gilchrist, Carl Forster and Billy Sheen also stood out after coming from the bench after a shaky opening half hour. All in all this was good hard work out and one Ian Talbot would have found useful just a fortnight ahead of the start of their Under 20s Championship. The only real worries for Saints were the knee injuries that befell Jamie Ellis and Shaun Magennis that led to both of their withdrawals during the 2nd half.
