WARRINGTON Wolves eased past Salford Red Devils in the final stages on a “barmy army” evening at the Halliwell Jones Stadium with a 30-14 victory.
The evening got off to a spectacular start as a team of army parachutists landed with the match ball followed by a three gun salute from a cannon to mark Armed Forces Weekend, as the Wolves warmed up in specially commissioned military style training tops.
Although with the evening heat still around 30 degrees, it didn’t take much effort to break into a sweat.
In a fairly even contest in the first half the scores were tied at 14-all before Josh Charnley gave the Wolves the lead on 52 minutes with his 17th try of the season and they didn’t look back.
The two sides exchanged early scores through Sitaleki Akauola and Jack Littlejohn for 6-all and then Tom Lineham scored in the corner to put the hosts in front.
Toby King marked his return to the team by getting on the end of a Tyrone Roberts kick for a third Wolves try and the sinbin of Ryan Lannon on 27 minutes had the Wolves 14-6 up against 12 men in the final stages of the first half.
But despite the numerical disadvantage, Salford found a way back in to the game, Littlejohn crossing for his second to reduce the deficit to 14-10 at the break.
And the visitors levelled things up within six minutes of the restart, keeping the ball alive for Jake Bibby to score.
Charnley re-established a Warrington lead and he then had one disallowed in the corner, ruled in touch.
It took until the 70th minute for the Wolves to get some breathing space, Daryl Clark darting over from close range.
Mike Cooper put the icing on the cake late on, capping a fine individual performance with a try for 30-14.
The victory took Warrington up to third in the table.
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Warrington: M Brown, Lineham, Goodwin, T King, Charnley, K Brown, Roberts, Akauola, Clark, Cooper, Pomeroy, Hughes, Westwood. Subs: Philbin, Murdoch-Masila, Patton, Crosby.
Salford: Littlejohn, Olpherts, Welham, Sau, Bibby, Lui, Shorrocks, Tasi, Wood, Mossop, Griffin, Lannon, Burke. Subs: Flanagan, Tomkins, Nakubuwai, Murray.
🗣 “Two points are two points. We did what had to do to get them and it’s a credit to the playing group.”
Hear from Steve Price following last night’s win over Salford ➡ https://t.co/uDjBYxtTRz pic.twitter.com/oOAgqlgKMO
— Warrington Wolves (@wolvesrl) June 30, 2018
🎬 | Hear from @bennie_westwood following his man-of-the-match display in tonight’s win over Salford pic.twitter.com/TZvdJPDKkv
— Warrington Wolves (@wolvesrl) June 29, 2018
🙌 Try number 1⃣7⃣ in the primrose and blue tonight for @Joshuacharnley! pic.twitter.com/izD1xGKIO4
— Warrington Wolves (@wolvesrl) June 29, 2018
