Chico's Feel Good Friday

A Herculean effort required

Fri 18th Apr 2008
12:24pm
Chico

Widnes spooked us last week, no doubt about it. Leading up to the game, I wasn’t the only one saying we’d beat them by 20 points. Fair play to the Vikings though; hopefully they have done us favour, if only to expose the flaws in Salford’s usual first half game plan of attrition. It works against less fit and less skilled teams, but Widnes, with their spritely play and killer offloads, showed us up on our turf. If we do the same against Wakefield, well, I don’t want to contemplate the consequences…

Wakefield have come off an impressive win at Huddersfield, where Danny Brough showed Luke Robinson how to really play at scrum half. They’re also coached by an arch nemisis of yore—John Kear. So I’d be surprised if the Wildcats weren’t aptly motivated. As such, the bookies are giving us a 10 point start.

We have got a chance of causing an upset. For one, Brad Drew—who in recent years grabbed Stanley Gene’s mantle as Salford’s chief tormentor—is still injured for Wakefield. They’re also missing a number of other key players including Jason ‘surely this year’s Man of Steel’ Demetriou. Karl Fitzpatrick’s return for Salford should release Robbie Paul into a more authorative role, either at dummy half or, hopefully, half back.

It’s certainly a case of Salford having to play at their best and Wakefield needing to under estimate us for a shock result to occur, but it’s not beyond us. As the League Express pointed out earlier this week, if Salford defeat Wakefield, they will become only the second club to twice defeat first division opposition from the lower leagues (Widnes was the first).

This week’s ditty is relatively new, but sounds like it was produced during 1993—which, incidently, was the last occasion these two teams met in the Challenge Cup. At The Willows, Salford went down 12–20. Nevertheless, win or lose, this week is another big game for us to get emotionally involved in, just as last week’s. The monotony of the Northern Rail Cup is fast becoming a vague memory.