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   Salford 0 Bradford Bulls 7
by Nigel Roberts
The Willows, Friday 26th February In a low scoring game the Reds failed to notch a single point and still remain winless after four matches. In an ominous start to the game the Reds failed to gather from the kick-off and were immediately put on the defensive. The Bulls came the closest to scoring in the early stages but winger Rikki Sherriffe was unable to reach a neat kick to the corner. Not long after, a half break by Salford centre Willie Talau came to nothing as second rower Ian Sibbit knocked on. Bradford continued to dominate and in the 24th minute Aussie veteran Steve Menzies crossed to score the game’s only try following a slick passing move. Surprisingly, fellow Aussie Matt Orford failed with the simplest of conversions under the posts (0 – 4). Just past the half-hour the Reds finally managed to get into their opponents half albeit by virtue of two penalties. The visit proved short-lived as winger Ashley Gibson was soon bundled into touch. Half-time came with Bradford holding onto their slender four point lead. Whilst they had failed to trouble the scoreboard the Reds had performed heroically on defence throughout the first forty minutes. Early in the second half a promising break by Adam Sidlow soon came to an end as he lacked the pace to make any real headway and squandered possession with a terrible pass. As the second half proceeded it looked likely that Salford would score as they came into the game more on attack but were let down by poor handling with stand-off Stefan Ratchford often being the culprit. In the 65th minute the Reds were penalised for ‘mouthing-off’ and this time Orford made no mistake with a short-range penalty (0 – 6). With time running out, Ratchford almost made amends for his earlier errors when he was hauled down just short of the line. With just a minute of time remaining the Bulls made sure of victory when England international Paul Sykes dropped a goal (0 – 7). This proved to be a mixed game for the Reds. On the plus side they were pretty sharp in defence and did extremely well to restrict the Bulls to just one try but on the minus side they were clueless with the ball in hand. They lacked punch up front and halves Ratchford and Dan Holdsworth failed to gell. Perhaps not surprisingly, Reds coach Shaun McRae was able to draw a number of positives from the game. He said: "It is probably the second week in a row I could say we deserved a draw." "I thought we did against Leeds last week and again tonight." "I am very proud of the lads' efforts. We had a couple of try scoring opportunities and didn't quite take them." "They had one in the first half and that was the difference in the game." "We have got a little bit to do with the ball in hand and need to fine-tune a couple of things but I thought it was above satisfactory." "If we keep playing like that a win is not too far away." Salford: Fitzpatrick, Broughton, Henry, Talau, Gibson, Ratchford, Holdsworth, Boyle, Alker, Parker, Sibbit, Adamson, Swain. Replacements: Leuluai, J. Smith, Littler, Sidlow (all used) Attendance: 3,806
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