Match Report | Salford Red Devils U19’s 24-42 Warrington & Vale

Rather like the young puppy which dances and plays around your ankles with the seeming intention of tripping you up at every step, so the Salford U19s College side snapped away at their opponents’ leads, drawing level on two occasions, before fatigue set in and they eventually ran out of time. This last was hardly surprising with only one substitute on which to draw.
Pleased as he was with his side’s overall improvement on their previous week’s performance, particularly defensively, it was their refusal to lie down and succumb to setbacks, which thrilled coach, Jay Boyd, most of all.
“We certainly felt that we could have won that game. We got off to another good start to go 6-0 ahead, but our opening try was overtaken by three of theirs. We levelled it up but they then went two tries ahead, which again we drew level with, before Warrington finally pulled away from us in the final stages.
“We had to work really hard to keep in touch with them throughout, and the great improvement in our defence went a long way to help this, but those early efforts to keep in touch had taken their toll by the last ten minutes.”
Once again, it was centre, Ellis Snelgrove, who opened the scoring, while further tries were notched through stand-off half, Morgan Kelly and loose forward, Josh Henry, both of whom crossed twice. Scrum half, Shane Knight was successful with two conversions, with his other attempts being from out wide.
The team is back in action tomorrow afternoon, with their first away trip of the season to take on Winstanley College, and Jay is looking for further improvements in this next outing.
“We spent our most recent training session working further upon our defence, because we really need to take it to another level to give ourselvs a sporting chance of winning.
“Next session, we shall work on our attack, but we have shown we have the ability to score tries so it will be stopping the other side from scoring which will be the catalyst in enabling us to get our first victory.”
Salford (Blacks) v Warrington & Vale
Ben Gore, Luke Watson, Ellis Snelgrove, Connor Asprey, Will Timmins, Morgan Kelly, Shane Knight, Patrick Johnson, Chad Wrigley, Brody Partington, Josh Connelly, James McKenna, Josh Henry, Will Pettigrew