Who's coming to widnes on Thursday hope you bring some fans

Myself and another 2-4 are coming, depending who's other halves let them. Hopefully be a good number come but you never know, with it being Thursday & sky, not to mention last weeks results!

Hopefully the team will turn up this week and give you a good game though. With injuries & the way we played on Thursday I refuse to be too optimistic yet though, you guys are in form.

I think we have too many injuries to key players, plus Widnes are on fire. Can't see past the home side on this one. I'm just hoping for a much improved performance from last week.

I'm sure you'll have a better night than against Saints but I'm hopeful with your injuries, our form and home advantage well do a number on you but you never know......

The game will be yours for the taking IMO. Hock, Meli, Griffin all out, Chase more than likely out, S'au should hopefully make a return though, and Rapira may play his second game in over 6 months. Home advantage as you say, you have a great record there and have had a brilliant start to the season.

If Salford aren't underdogs for this I want some of what the bookies are smoking!

Is Brown back for Thursday? It'll be a big boost for us if he's not, you do have a few injury problems of your own from what I've heard.

Hopefully our boys will be chomping at the bit to make amends for last week & make a game of it. If they are it should be a good game and that's the most important thing for both teams I think, especially with it being on Sky.

I know the club are running coaches to widnes @ £10 per person.

Pick ups from the white horse in Eccles 6pm
Eccles Town hall, church Street 6:05
Stadium 6:15

Must be paid in advance you can ring the stadium or go in and purchase the place on the bus from the ticket office or reception from Monday to Thursday 8am till 10pm so no need to rush down in tea time traffic.
Thursday morning is the cut off for the bus or when it gets full

Hopefully we can will get a big following because £10 is a good price imo. And if you can't get to widnes or watch it on sky listen to it live on the Salford red Devils app

Im hoping our forwards muscle up and give us good go forward we have enough quality to get over the St Helens game

Well we can still be looking at :

Mullaney (if fit)/Evalds if not
Johnston
Gleeson/Walton
Sau
Williams
Fages
Smith
Morley
Lee
Tasi
Hanson
Pulatea
Dixon

Walne
Ashurst
Rapira
Glleson/Walton
McPherson
Mullaney/Evalds

May be the 19 - which doesnt look too bad does it?

Just goes to show that the lack of squad depth you see fans of other teams trying to point out is actually not really true, we have some excellent players that we can bring in.

Hock and Chase are still big misses, arguably 2 of our best players and both can turn a game on their own...Though occasionally they can turn it the wrong way too! We may have more depth than some appreciate but we don't have anyone with the talent of either of these 2 just 'waiting in the wings'.

On another note, is Mullaney injured too?

Given our injuries and Widnes’ home form so far, the bookies will have to us a start. Any other players and we would have been ok, but Rangi, Hock and Meli are all big losses to our starting 13.

Hopefully Sa’u will make a return, but people are forgetting he still isn’t match fit. A disrupted pre-season due to the birth of his child and an injury in the opening game mean he is still on catch up. Rapira should be in contention, but again has only played one game in the last 6-8 months and wont be upto the required levels for a while yet either.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t think we were 38-0 worse than Saints last week. They ran away with it at the end after the heads dropped so I can see this one (given injuries and lack of fitness) being a close one still.

Salford by 6.

Heart obviously wants a win but the head is saying it's highly unlikely after what I've witnessed so far. I don't think the team have clicked up to now, the back line in particular is lacking speed, fluidity and spark. (Bring Longy back) Further to this our kicking game has been poor so far, we're dropping off tackles and we are going to be missing a few key players. We also need to work on slowing down the opposition ruck speed (legally) and we need a few more attacking plays other than Hansen running wide off Tim Smith.

My head says Widnes by 30+ Points but I really hope my gut instinct is wrong.

Whilst early in the season I think this game could really set the tone for how the year will pan out. We're missing our two big names and are coming off the back of a slapping by a very good team. We're coming up against a team which on paper you'd say we're stronger than but who are clearly in much better form than us. If this season is to be the sort of success we are hoping for (in to the play-offs with a little room to spare) then this is the sort of game we need to be winning by a try or two.

I agree that a win would be a terrific confidence boost and could potentially define our season.

Win on Thursday and we then have a fighting chance next Friday, lose and it could end up being losing 5 on the trot.

I'd hate to be in Nobles shoes if that was the case.

It is interesting that we have played the last 120 minutes at home ( 40 mins 2nd half v Wakefield and 80 mins v Saints ) without scoring a point and the only repeat set I can recall was 2 mins from the end of the last game when the much maligned Stu Howarth put a kick into the in-goal area,which he followed and tackled Lomax for the GLDO.

I heard Sean Long interviewed once and he stated he constructed attacks from our own 20 due to the lack of impact from our pack at the time.

Getting it perfect for rounds 10 and 11 will be the away games at Leeds and Catalans.


As we have a 100% away record thus far in Super League with the away win at London I will hope the away wins continue,at Widnes,and beyond rounds 10 and 11.

I am not too sure how many of our overseas signings will have played on an artificial surface.

Nobody can question Long's talent as a player, but as a coach I don't buy into this reputation he seems to have amassed with some Salford fans. Yes we played some great attacking rugby under his directive, but we had some very talented attacking players in Holdsworth, Smith and Moon.

I also don't think he's made the transition from player to coach, during his time at Salford seemed to be more interested in being mates with the players rather than their coach and a figure of seniority.

His well publicised personal issues aren't what we need either, Wigan and London both didn't like what they saw. I hope he gets sorted and gets a break, we don't produce too many good half backs in this country and it would be a waste to see him disappear from the game.

I agree. Look our back line a couple of years ago. Patten, Gleeson, Moon, Broughton, Smith, Holdsworth. There was a lot of attacking qualities in there. The wingers/centres we had then were more exciting than I anticipate the guys we have this season will be.

What will your likely team be then ?

Are Hock and Chase dedinitely out?

Hock, definitely; Chase, as far as we know. Plus Meli and Griffin.

Pleased I was sitting down when I read this.It is almost an ecomium for Steve Simms.How did he persuade that standard of player to a dilapidated stadium;a club rapidly running out of money;amateur set-up etc.?

Reading the letter questioning the pace of the backs which,for some arcane reason was printed in this weeks RLE,it looks like this year the backs are going to be to blame after previous complaints about the pack.

Should be good on here after we win on Thursday night...

We persuaded them by spending money that we anticipated coming in at the new stadium which didnt materialise.

Add Broughton & Moon to our current squad and I would be very happy. As it stands we all need to be patient and manage our expectations and we can bring in key signings in the next couple of years.

Widnes will be very tough on Thursday, Im looking forward to a very tough competitive game. Im confident we will get big games from Mullaney, Johnson & Smith and just edge the game.

Listening to Wilkin on the Superleague show he said the score did not reflect the Salford performance , and was a hard physical game. I feel this will be a close and competitive game, as Saints really just took their chances and kicked the goals too. Anyway i hope you bring a decent following because it is like a local derby now in my eyes. So how many tickets have you sold and are a few travelling? Be nice to have a good away following to create a atmosphere.

Salford fans are peaking and despite last week’s set back there's still a feel good factor about the place and how far we've come so I'd be disappointed if there's not at least 6/700 there.

Anyone who watched the game would understand the scoreline flattered Saints, they are nowhere near 38-0 better than us. Dont get me wrong they were far superior, but we wasnt far away. The last 20 minutes when the heads had dropped were what embarrased the scoreline.

Anyway... According to the Widnes forum, we've only sold 82 tickets for tonights game. See below quote.









1. 7,000 fans they refer to (7,102 actually) included around 850 from Wakefield.
2. There wasnt 7,000 vs Saints, there was 6,300 with around 1,400 from Saints.
3. Why would we exagerate crowd figures?
4. We dont give away any free tickets.
5. When have Widnes ever brought 1,500 to the AJ Bell?

Some deluded scousers over there.

FWIW - I think we'll take 750 ish tonight and a guarntee they'll out sing Widnes "record" pre ticket sale crowd.