Salford hold off Crusaders

Salford held off a Celtic Crusaders comeback to triumph 28-16 in the battle of Super League's two newest franchises at the Willows.

The Reds surged out to a 20-0 lead but were eventually pushed hard by the visitors, who have now suffered back-to-back defeats at the start of 2009.

Tony Duggan did score two tries in a losing cause, the full-back's quick-fire double taking him through to a stunning century of tries for the Welsh club.

However, just as they had against Leeds on opening night, when they lost 28-6 to the defending champions, the Crusaders had left themselves with too much to do following a sluggish start.

Red-hot hosts

Midway through the opening half it appeared the Reds would run riot, going along at a point-a-minute rate to put themselves in total control.

Despite having six debutants they were fluent from the outset, taking just five minutes to break the deadlock through Craig Stapleton.

The Australian forward was on hand to accept a pass from full-back Karl Fitzpatrick after some excellent work from deposed captain Malcolm Alker.

The hooker, who was axed from his role of skipper following a breach of club discipline on the pre-season tour to Florida, also had a hand in Salford's third try, scored by Mark Henry.

In between England international Richard Myler had somehow managed to avoid the attentions of the Crusaders to coast over straight from a scrum.

Wilshere converted all three scores and also added a penalty to help put his team into a commanding lead against a side that they had needed extra time to beat in last year's National One Grand Final.

However, just as they had done in their first outing at Headingley Carnegie last Friday, the Crusaders rolled up their sleeves and fought back to such an extent that they looked the more likely to claim the win at one stage.

The comeback began 12 minutes before the break when Peter Lupton was in the right place to get on the end of a deflected Jace van Dijk grubber kick.

Duggan double

It was then the turn of Duggan to set the Salford nerves jangling, the Australian bagging a brace of tries in the space of just five second-half minutes.

His first came courtesy of winger Luke Dyer's inside pass while his second saw him wriggle free of Wilshere's desperate grasp to dive over and bring up his personal ton - amazingly achieved in just 85 matches.

Josh Hannay converted both to make it 20-16 but - with skipper van Dijk sidelined with concussion - their hopes of getting ahead were dashed when Ian Sibbit rumbled over just after the hour mark.

Wilshere failed to add the extras but was on target with two penalty attempts in the final 10 minutes to make sure Salford enjoyed a winning return to the top flight after a one-year absence.