Pictures Eddie Whitham
WARRINGTON Wolves slipped to their seventh defeat of the season as Salford once again took the spoils at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday night.
Having won 36-12 on Good Friday, Salford breathed life in to their chase for the play-offs with a 22-12 win in this one, former Widnes centre Krisnan Inu scoring two tries.
The result leaves Steve Price’s men anxiously looking over their shoulders as the teams behind them close the gap, while the result means St Helens are just two wins away from securing a second successive league leaders’ shield.
Warrington started well but it was another lacklustre performance from the Wolves, who lost at home for the second game running.
They should have taken the lead on three minutes when Josh Charnley had a try chalked off for a forward pass, and it became a double whammy as the Red Devils went up the other end as Ryan Lannon broke through from 40 metres.
The Wolves dominated the early part of proceedings but it took until 24 minutes for them to level things up, Jason Clark taking a pass off namesake Daryl to level things at 6-6.
Inu’s penalty for offside gave Salford a slender two point advantage at the break, and they would score two tries in the first seven minutes of the second half to take control of the game.
Kris Welham skipped through some poor defence to score, and then a mistake by Jake Mamo from Tui Lolohea enabled Jackson Hastings to kick across for Inu’s first.
It got even worse the hosts when another Hastings kick was knocked back by Junior Sa’u for Inu to make it 22-6.
Warrington’s night went from bad to worse when Sitaleki Akauola was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on former Wolves forward Tyrone McCarthy, though in his absence they claimed a try through Matt Davis.
They threw plenty at Salford in the remaining 17 minutes but couldn’t find a way through, meaning Hull, who they face in the Challenge Cup semi-final, are now just four points behind them in the table.
Warrington: Mamo, Lineham, Goodwin, King, Charnley, Austin, Patton, Tasi, Clark, Akauola, Currie, Hughes, Davis. Subs: Walker, Philbin, Clark, Moran.
Salford: Evalds, Inu, Welham, Sa’u, Bibby, Lolohea, Hastings, Burke, Tomkins, Dudson, Lannon, McCarthy, Flanagan. Subs: Walker, Johnson, Lussick, Lawton.
