I've not been back to Bratfut since the play off thrashing in 2006. Rightly or wrongly I've never fancied us to win since (I know we have).

But today I felt compelled to go and support the lads, not only because we had a decent chance of at least giving them a game, but moreso because I've been watching the game long enough to know when we have finally got a team worth my time and money to support, on what was, let's face it, a day which could easily have been spent in the park with the wife and kids.

Looking at the teamsheet before kick off we clearly have no world beaters - but by god, when they get on the pitch they play fantastically as a unit, whoever is selected. I don't think I'm getting carried away as I know that if we played Leeds again tomorrow they'd probably give us another lesson. However, the team are playing some great rugby: offloads, strong running forwards, kicking early in the tackle count, turning the oppostion on their backs, kicks bisecting the full back and winger, decent support play, good finishing, admirable team spirit - I could go on.

Those of us who were there today will surely agree, we really do have a potential top 8 side in our midsts.

And altogether: Forwarrrrrrrrrrrrrd!!

What he said... about a side from Salford


Without our two first choice Wingers
Another outstanding ' team performance ' , but I have to single out Joel Moon who caused trouble with the ball in hand all game.

We road our luck today , I counted 3 or 4 clear cut chances Bradford didn't put away , that would have made the alot tighter.
In the second half Lestrange & Diskin had us all ends up at acting half back and gained alot of ground ( and penalties off Thaler ) . and we need to fix that for next Friday definately.

As a bulls fan I just want to congratulate you on a fantastic win you were the better side and played some good rugby today but seriously how the ref didnt spot your team offside all the time i dont know and yes you did do a lot of forward passes as did we which the ref didnt pick up on. Good luck for the rest of the season though and will look forward to playing you at your place!

I agree with all the comments made, at times we rode our luck, but you also make your own luck, well done Salford we took our chances & above all we played as team.

Virtually every pass from an opposing team at Odsal is forward according to the home support, you've only got to watch your lot on sky playing at home and hear it all throughout the game from your supporters when in fact a forward pass was nowhere in sight? I'm not sure whether its because of the perspective your lot get from where you stand on the terraces but each and every time I go to Odsal or watch a game on sky from there its always the same - forward, forward, forward! I've only been to one other stadium where its remotely the same from the home support and thats Batley, maybe its a yorkshire thing

Didn't attend today due to working 6 day weeks on nights, wish I could have though. Listened on BBC Manc and it sounded like a very professional performance. We've not had much luck with overseas signings over the years but it sounds like Joel Moon is fast becoming a very important player for us. Seems like if he plays, we play well and have a lot more in the locker in attack.

It is also nice to see the opposition coach being kind about us - far too many times over the years when we've beaten other teams there hasn't been much credit paid to Salford; it was always blamed on them being off the boil or playing poorly. Same to the Bradford fans, a quick peek at their forum and a post on this thread shows them giving credit where credit is due.

Seems as though the league this year is a lot tighter, a lot of surprise results. Thinking about the pre-season games and how thin our squad looks, I could never have imagined us getting four wins out of eight, very happy so far. We really need to get Matty Smith and Danny Williams signed up (who else is out of contract at the end of this season?) and hopefully can add another big prop to the squad for next year. Looking forward to the Challenge Cup draw tomorrow night, hoping for a home draw against a Super League team, hoping that the BBC would pick the game for live coverage and maybe expose us in our new ground to a few more Salfordians, and Mancunians.

Aside from that, how good were Saints just now! Good decision to part with Simmons?

Given I sit on about 35 metres, yes you scored tries off a number of forward passes. When we had one (rightly) disallowed for the same. And I think the offside rule for you became sort of optional.

But you were easily the better team nevertheless, and had I been a neutral I would have said a pleasure to watch. Fast, few mistakes and entertaining. Are you trying to take over Stains' mantle? Definitely good value, and you should rightly be pleased with the team you seem to have built. Impressive IMO.

But all Bradfuts tries came from penalties, marched down the field by Thaler, we should have had a few obstructions and towards the end we did the long kick which hit bradfuts fullback and was then gathered by Pryce in an offside positionm but it was play on. i note the bradfut fans don't shout for their own teams forward passes and there were plenty of them. In the end despite being heavily penalised the best team on the day won we even eased up in the second half.

BEEB make it better than it was www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/17446149

BEEB make it better than it was www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/17446149

Be interested to see the official penalty count, given it was penalties in YOUR favour that killed us.

Were you behind the sticks or at the side of the pitch? If you were behind the sticks, then with all due respect you can't really tell from there. We had tries chalked off for forward passes; you did not. Both teams threw forwards, so go figure? Do YOUR fans shout for YOUR forward passes? Does ANY team's fans? Silly comment, then.

But we hardly deserved to win anyway, with sodding Burgess passing your guys the ball on several occasions leading to tries. Dunno what he was thinking, but it can't have been anything that intelligent.

I said the best team won. You did not ease up second half, we just started to make some sort of an effort. Even so, the mountain was far too big to climb, and you were easily better than us today anyway so it was pretty academic what we did.

Edit: read somewhere it was 11-all on the penalty count. Just goes to shopw then that, like forward passes, some penalties are more equal than others...

Did anyone count the number of pairs of hands (or one hand ) involved in the Salford try towards the end of the first half ? It will be pretty good to see another try as good as that in the reminder of the season.

I think it was around 15 but I may be getting giddy there


Yes we rode our luck but the way the defence held up on a number of occasions when Bratfud were camped on our line was great to see.
One down side is the missed kicks from DJ or we could have been in the 40s


Brilliant performance.
4 years of the Mcrae 5 drives and a kick are becoming a distant memory.

BTW
I wonder where the Bratfud village idiot has dissapeared to

As good a try as I have seen at Odsal for a long long time.

I hate you all.

Didn't go today as I've got an essay in tomorrow. Makes a change if we were constantly offside and getting away with it as it's usually the other way around. We always seem to hang back while the other team tries to push the limits as much as possible by advancing as soon as possible.

Sounded like we scored some good tries, so looking forward to seeing the highlights.

Hopefully we back up this with a good performance against Wigan. Not expecting a win, but hoping we at least test them a little bit.

Just as an aside - it's great to see the team seemingly given the freedom to express themselves (as Prestwich Red says, the McRae tactics are thankfully fast becoming a distant memory). How nice it would have been to see Ratchford playing in the team now...

Fantastic effort by the boys today,going into the game thought we would struggle,with the injurys we picked up against leeds,full credit to the 17 that took the field,everyone gave there all,played some real quality football,and with great confidence,nice to see.i have to mention one player that stood out again for me,luke patten,every game this season, is finally showing the world class player we signed last season.

Keep it up lads

Played some cracking rugby today you lot!

Just seemed one of those days where all your passes stuck and created some great tries, and for whatever reason ours just went to ground.

Anyway, congrats on the win, just hope we pay you back later on in the season

GMR said 15 (they played it back at least 4 times on the drive home!) but i counted 12 when i watched it back

Another crime we can attribute to Mcraes tenure along with other promising players whose game was stiffled by his tactics.
Under the guidance of SL who knows what player he would have become.
I wonder if he looks now with a hint of regret ?

Not had a chance to see any of the tries again yet but at the time I thought the try was better than THAT try Catalans scored against Saints. The Catalans one involved dropped passes/airshots the lot! The fact it was the last play of the game is why all the pundits had it down for try of the season.

As for the game, yet another fantastic performance by the lads. The team stood up to what was a pretty hefty Bulls pack and we got our tactics spot on by moving the Bulls around the park with plenty of offloads & a really good kicking game. I can't praise Vievers & Long enough for what they've done with this squad of players & some of the rugby we're playing is sublime. We all singled out games against the likes of Bradford as 'must wins' if we're to challenge for top 8 & ATM we're winning these games.

Wigan is another HUGE test & one that I fear will be a step too far but hopefully a decent performance will keep some of the casual fans interested for the HKR game. Anyway, well played Reds, keep up the good work, we're behind you all the way!

Just watched the Highlights. Some great tries. You can see that they are brimming with confidence and they have that oh-so-hard to gain mental positivity that has been lacking in the last few years.

I'm not overly bothered about results against top 6 sides, and any result against these teams is a bonus. The test this year is to be the 'best of the rest' and keep the teams around us below us. That may seem negative, but Rome wasn't built in a day and a successful season will bring the team closer together as a unit, we can hopefully re-sign the players that need to be re-signed and add a few players next season to kick-on.

Wigan at home is always winnable but they'll need to be on top of their game and after the results this week, Wigan will want a response.

There is just one little thing I would like to see addressed and that is the 'touch in-goal' nonsense.
Our eagerness to be the entertainers and keep the game flowing could become more work for ourselves if we don't change tack.
At St Helens the new ruling caused a problem and more work.In the heat yesterday the officials again caused a problem after Matty indicated to the in-goal touch judge (?) that he was behind the dead ball line when he caught it.Thaler came up with his own interpretation and a GLDO gives us more pressure to deal with.

Can we just let the ball go into the crowd and take it from there ?

The ruling yesterday was that Smith caught the ball before he'd got his foot planted in touch, so he effectively took the ball out of play - it was a close call but probably right.

Where's the highlights?

Terrific performance - was particularly impressed with our kicking in the first half - playing Bradford at their own game of kicking deep into those upturned corners and forcing them back - how many times have we been suckered by that at Odsal over the years.
Everyone played their part - I thought Luke Adamson had his bet game for a long while and Fekka's enthusiasm was a joy to watch, carrying three tacklers 10 yards plus every time he got the ball
Great stuff - can't wait for Friday now (down to earth perhaps?)