Two sides with top four aspirations met at a rain soaked, and windswept, A J Bell Stadium in Salford as the Red Devils looked to halt a four game losing streak against a Huddersfield Giants side who were unbeaten in the last three.

The Red Devils list of unavailable players was jam packed full of first teamers, and the visitors were almost unchanged from the side that fought back brilliantly last week against the Rhinos, and who were unlucky to only pick up one point.

There had been a week long war of words between the two sides, with Giants coach Anderson suggesting 'We owe them one' for the now infamous Chase cannonball challenge on Ferres which has seen both players absent for the last five.

Conditions were poor from the outset with driving rain on top of an already rain soaked pitch but surprisingly errors were sparse in the opening exchanges.

An error did come on six minutes when a high Danny Brough kick was not dealt with by Ben Jones-Bishop and as the ball hit the floor it was picked up by Leroy Cudjoe and touched down in the corner. Brough failed to add the extras from wide in difficult conditions.

On fourteen Jamie Ellis extended the Giants lead, again thanks to a moment of Brough genius. The half-back put through a grubber which he chased and kicked forward again before collecting ahead of the Salford defence and passing inside to Ellis to go over. Brough added the two for 10-0 but Salford weren't out of it by any means.

Grix and Hauraki saw yellow for exchanging punches on twenty-four just minutes before Adrian Morley received a 'on report' for seeming to push away an opponent with his head. The disciplinary panel may be busy with this game on Monday.

With a couple of minutes of the half left Brough kicked a penalty to give his side a 12-0 interval lead.

The Red Devils were much better in the second half and piled the pressure on the Giants playing much of the opening twenty in the visitors half. But the Giants defence was resolute and attack after attack was thwarted. With the Giants under increasing pressure Brough opted to increase the lead by a solitary point with a fifty-fifth minute drop goal, gaining the mental upper hand.

On the hour mark the game was put to bed as Jones-Bishop again faltered under the Brough high ball allowing the Giants many the match to retrieve his own play. From a fast play the ball Kyle Wood dropped the shoulder to go over and allowed Brough to kick the extras to round off the nights scoring.

This was a solid defensive effort from the Giants who totally frustrated the home side in conditions where there would have been plenty of excuses for a high-scoring error-strewn encounter. The Giants are up to fourth spot and seem to be finding some good form at the right end of the season.

Salford are much better than this as they have shown earlier in the season and they will be desperate to get some of their stars back on the park as they try to ensure at least a top eight spot before the mid-season split.

Red Devils: Evalds, Jones-Bishop, Gildart, Caton-Brown, Johnson, Fages, Griffin G, Taylor, Godwin, Griffin D, Walne J, Hauraki, Hansen. Subs: Hood, Morley, Tasi, Walne A.

Giants: Grix, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Connor, Murphy, Brough, Wood, Crabtree, Ellis, Huby, Wardle, Hughes, Taia. Subs: Lawrence, Mullally, Kopczak, Leeming.


Referee: Rob Hicks
Attendance: