A big win for Saints, and a big loss for Salford, in last weeks opening round of Super League XXI suggested that tonight's game at the A J Bell Stadium was a foregone conclusion.

Saints are second favourites to end the season top of the pile, but only Wakefield are less favoured by the bookies than the Red Devils.



Kieran Cunninghams' Saints were without the services of Roby, Lomax and Burns, and with The Red Devils coach Ian Watson the latest to be in the Marwan Koukash firing line, he'd have been hoping his side could capitalise and show a vast improvement over last weeks losing performance at the KC Stadium.



But few people were prepared for what they were about to witness.

With an extra weekend to prepare, and backed by a larger than average home crowd thanks to reduced entry prices, everything was in place for a Red Devils win to lift them into the top eight ahead of the Magic Weekend.



Tomy Smith and his Warrington Wolves had different ideas, and following the midweek departure of Micky Higham, they had Daryl Clark at hooker and welcomed the influential Stefan Ratchford back to the ranks after he missed out on last weeks cup win over the Dewsbury Rams.

The ubiquitous Marwan Koukash has deliberately strengthened the player roster at Salford in the glare of the media spotlight.

His constant quest for column inches has kept Salford Red Devils and Rugby League in the red top headlines, but is his hand-built side already overrated?

We have seen a number of high profile signings arrive at Salford over the last few months including Rangi Chase, Adrian Morley and Gareth Hock.

The key question at this juncture is how good a squad do they have in the context of the rest of Superleague?

Re-branded Super League outfit Salford Red Devils have donated three sets of kit to European nations Serbia, Ukraine and Latvia as part of their commitment to help spread the sport.

A late try from Jordan James helped Salford to a 28-22 win over Widnes to climb off the foot of the table.



Widnes scrum-half, Joe Mellor had already recorded a hatrick but it ultimately led to nothing after James powered over two minutes from time.

Salford City Reds survived a late scare as they held out for a 34-30 victory under new coach Brian Noble against the Castleford Tigers in an entertaining fixture at the Salford City Stadium.



The Reds took a 16-14 lead into half time with tries from Matty Ashurst, Danny Williams and Andrew Dixon against tries for Castleford from Nathan Massey, Justin Carney and Adam Milner.

St Helens have sent stand-off, Lee Gaskell on loan to Salford whilst recruiting Stuart Howarth in the other direction.



Howarth will stand in for the injured James Roby whilst the City Reds will be happy to have signed a potential filled playmaker.