Star date: 14th May 2016

ST HELENS 34 SALFORD RED DEVILS 20

Red Devils coach, Ian Watson, said at the end of the defeat by St Helens that "We were on the rough end of some iffy decisions by the referee". Reds' fans put it slightly stronger, as Simon Williams reports...

Meanwhile Reds owner, Marwan Koukash, is rumoured to have called a press conference for Wednesday as the intrigue hots up.

Match report here...

Salford were yet again robbed by the referee. When are we going to start getting the 50 -50 calls? Never, it seems, as fans' suspicions of a vendetta by the RFL get cranked up every week.

At this match, Niall Evalds scored a hat-trick of tries for the visitors but Saints crossed for half a dozen touchdowns to notch a welcome win after a thrilling contest.
Both clubs were bidding to erase the memory of cup exits last weekend, with St Helens crashing to a 47-18 home defeat by Hull, and Salford bowing out 32-18 at understrength Castleford.

An early mix-up involving Jonny Lomax put Saints under pressure and Evalds eventually went over in the corner for the opening try. St Helens replied almost immediately with Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook taking a Theo Fages pass to charge over, and Luke Walsh converting to make it 6-4 after 10 minutes.

Saints could have gone further ahead had Swift been able to take a difficult pass, and it was no surprise when Mark Percival stretched over from dummy half to make it 10-4. Saints suffered a setback when Kyle Amor was forced to quit after 26 minutes, with Robert Lui leading the charge for Salford and Phil Joseph almost catching Keiron Cunningham's men napping from acting half back.

It was a hard-fought contest but Saints gave themselves some welcome breathing space when Alex Walmsley's smart offload allowed Dominique Peyroux to power over and Walsh's conversion made it 16-4. But Saints dropped their concentration just before the break with Ben Murdoch-Masila bouncing off defenders for Evalds to grab his second try and cut the interval gap to 16-8.

Half time, and the lads from the Dog and Partridge were thinking we could do it. Saints should have extended the lead but Jon Wilkin dropped a pass from James Roby's surging break with the line at his mercy. A 50metre Swift run stunned Salford, who conceded a fourth try with Walsh sending Lomax sprinting over on a curving run to make it 22-8.

Lomax was injured scoring the try and was forced to limp off, before Salford responded with a Justin Carney touchdown and O'Brien booting his first conversion after two misses. Salford were certainly not prepared to concede defeat and Lui's skills saw Evalds complete his hat-trick, going over in the corner from O'Brien's pass.

Michael Dobson landed the touchline conversion to cut the deficit to 22-20 and, by this stage, Salford were on fire with Carney going close from Dobson's kick in a thrilling contest.

But then Fages sidestepped his way over against his old pals to give Saints an eight-point cushion after 64 minutes before Amor scored to seal victory. Final score: Saints 34 Salford Red Devils 20.

Salford fans believe the loss was down to the referee, with a try that never was and other dodgy decisions... "The lads put up a good fight but unfortunately the battle was lost to the ref" said Ryan Wilde from Langworthy "Even when Lui came over after the game his words were `Done over by the ref again'."

Salford Red Devils coach Ian Watson added: "We were on the rough end of some iffy decisions by the referee. I told him after the game I didn't think his performance was the best and he did not disagree..."