Started off with O'Brien & Dobson as halves, Evalds full back and Bibby on right wing , of the new pack Sarsfield & Flanagan back row with Krasniqi at loose.

Rochdale were out on the field warming up and going through set moves a good 1/2 hr prior to Salford making an appearance .
It showed in the opening exchanges with Hornets more fluent . 6'7" ex Warrington Academy player Samir Tahraoui proving a handful . Another ex Warrington Player Riley went over on the far right as Rochdale numbered up and caught Salford napping .
Ex Roughyed Dave Cookson doubled the tally sailing clean though weak tackling on the left .
Up to this point Salford hadn't troubled the Hornets line , and promising runs from Carney * Dobson had ended with lost ball and no repeats sets .
Robert Lui was introduced at 6 with O'Brien moving to Full Back & Evalds to right wing. Liu looked immediately at home in the position , Tomkins was introduced with Lee reverting to 13 , and Salford's play looked more penetrating , on 30 mins Liu working to the right feigned a pass, dropped his shoulder and sailed through Hornets line for Salfords 1st try , Dobson 1st choice kicker added the extras, another attacking run and pass from Tomkins resulted in Salford 2nd try after Matt Sarsfield's juggling act . Salford looked to go in level at half time until further possession and a couple of forward runs ended with inter change Prop , Carl Foster forcing his way over the line just to the left of the posts . O'Brien Added the extras. Kopczak, Krasniqi & Sarsfield working hard .in 18-12 HT

2nd Half Liu's handling & distribution became more prominent Salford looked more confident in possession with further score looking inevitable , it came when a right sided move broke and the ball was recycled left ended with a Dobson chip to the left wing where the ball was skillfully snatched out of Riley's? hands by Carney for his debut try for Salford, another attack on Rochales line minutes later ended when Lee skillfully chipped into the in goal area right of the posts with Evalds reacting first to catch and ground the ball . Josh wood replaced Dobson with Griffin taking over kicking duties and added the 2 with a trick-shot off the left post.

Possession swung to Rochdale for a time with clever use of the short kicking game brought repeated sets of 6. Salford looked to have weathered the sets without damage until a 20 yard kick to the right in-goal area failed to be cleaned up by O'Brien and Cookson claimed the try . Rochdale failed to add the extras

Salford reasserted their dominance with a team now firmly populated by interchange / Academy players , Bent, Wood, Gee, with Matty Wilkinson taking over at 9 the most impressive , Salford kept their shape despite the interchanges & increased the lead through Try's by Sau , Krasniqi & Griffin, Griffin converting 2.
end 16-44

Rochdale MOM Dave Cookson
Salford MOM Robert Liu
Debut's- Justin Carney, Gareth O'Brien,Craig Kopczak, Mark Flanagan, Matt Sarsfield, Liam Bent, Adam Jones , Matty Wilkinson .

Notable performances from Kopczak who played 65 minutes and led the pack well , Tomkins who injected much needed pace around the PTB when introduced , Carney & Griffin who returned the ball well. Matt Sarsfield who had a good opening game in the back row , Gareth O'brien showed his utility skills with a confident Debut in two postions, Matty Gee looked to have gained some timber & made some good runs , skull capped Matty Wilkinson looked a natural at acting half back , employing the Alker-esque point right - pass left & made some telling attacking runs.
Carl Foster looked the only player who had picked up a knock.

Notable absences- George Griffin , Phil Joseph , Ben Murdoch-Masila, Ryan Lannon, Matt Haggerty, Greg Johnson , Jordan Walne, Mason Caton Brown , Weller Hauraki,

Actually some people just like a day out around the match. Hardly a crime.

I thought Rochdale were very enthusiastic in the opening 25 minutes. (Credit where it's due they gave it 100%) I think a mixture of fatigue and the introduction of Robert Lui changed the balance of the game. Overall I'm pretty satisfied, the new recruits did well and the youngsters did their bit. Comparing it to many Salford friendlies over recent years it was encouraging for a first hit out and I came away feeling quite positive for once. Have we eventually got a team with a decent attacking kicking game I wonder? With respect to our previous half backs they didn't have an effective kicking game.

Another plus was the surprising turnout of so many Salford fans on a bitterly cold afternoon for an away friendly fixture.

Hornets coach take on the match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUG2vWJG5ks

Hornets coach take on the match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUG2vWJG5ks

Salford fans normally get panned for our away followings, when realistically barring a couple of games we do take a steady following sometimes quite more than steady i.e Huddersfield away last season , Warrington away etc

Decent following at the Leigh game as well.

When you consider our home attendances %wise away, we don’t do to badly at all. Must have been 1k Salford fans on Sunday, let’s just see how long it lasts.

Last year against Hudderfield at home the attendance was 1.8k ish (from memory) we took about 1.5/6k to Warrington away. Barmy.

Then again on the other hand we have taken some awful followings to certain places.

Huddersfield at home was Thursday of Friday and the weather wasn't great. Plus on sky so instead of prob 3k home fans about a third stay home watch it. Prob right idea given result.