Crusaders see off Reds

Crusaders hauled themselves off the bottom of the engage Super League with a 16-10 win at Salford.

The Welshmen had lost six in a row since beating the Reds 42-12 on the opening day of the season at the Millennium Stadium.

But tries from Jordan Tansey - his first for the club - Jarrod Sammut and Gareth Thomas sealed victory.

Crusaders handed a debut to Hep Cahill, with Rhys Hanbury making his first appearance of the campaign after the pair were held up by visa delays.

Salford were relieved Michael Witt, who grabbed a hat-trick of tries in the Cardiff romp, was out through a one-match suspension for punching Castleford's Richie Mathers last week.

But Peter Lupton was back after missing the Cas defeat for the birth of his daughter.

Debut

Salford handed a debut to ex-Warrington forward Vinnie Anderson after impressive victories over Hull KR and Catalan, but Rob Parker and Iafeta Paleaaesina were still sidelined through injury.

Crusaders were down to 12 men after 11 minutes with Vince Mellars sin-binned for a grapple tackle on Sean Gleeson.

Mellars had earlier been penalised by referee Steve Ganson for holding down.

Ray Cashmere thought he had given Salford the lead but his effort was disallowed for a double movement.

The Reds could not turn their numerical advantage and incessant pressure into points.

Chances were limited on both sides, with Crusaders bringing on Sammut after half an hour to try and spark their attack.

Lupton went close for the Welshmen but was brought back for a forward pass from Tansey, snapped up recently after being sacked by Hull.

But Crusaders broke the deadlock 11 seconds from half-time when Luke Patten failed to gather Daniel Holdsworth's pass and Tansey pounced to race 90 metres to touch down.

Clinton Schifcofske, who had been placed on report for an incident in a tackle, maintained his record of scoring in every match since last June by booting the conversion to make it 6-0 at the break.

Crusaders extended the lead early in the second half when Cahill's loose pass looked to be deflected by a Salford defender and Sammut hacked ahead to score.

Benefit

Video referee Ben Thaler gave Sammut the benefit of the doubt and Schifcofske slotted over the conversion.

Salford clawed back to 12-6 with Cashmere taking Holdsworth's pass to charge over for a converted try after 51 minutes.

There was only a two point gap five minutes later with Jodie Broughton racing onto Stefan Ratchford's kick to pick up smartly and go over in the corner.

Holdsworth missed the touchline conversion but the Reds were relieved when Thaler disallowed a Ben Flower try for a double movement on the hour.

But Crusaders had more luck 10 minutes from time when Thaler awarded Thomas a try after a Lloyd White pass to increase the lead to 16-10.