Wolves complete Reds hat-trick

Warrington Wolves claimed their third engage Super League victory over Salford City Reds this season with a 27-10 triumph at the Willows on Friday evening.

The Wolves ran up a century of points in their first two meetings with Salford, including a 68-16 mauling at Murrayfield a month ago, but Shaun McRae's men - fresh from back-to-back wins over St Helens and Catalans Dragons - this time made their opponents work for the win which takes them to within two points of leaders Wigan.

Two tries in the last four minutes from Mickey Higham and David Solomona finally subdued the battling Reds and gave Warrington a flattering margin of victory.

The Reds suffered a couple of pre-match blows, with Australian star Daniel Holdsworth failing a fitness test on a torn calf and full-back Karl Fitzpatrick losing his ever-present record this season because of an ankle injury, which forced McRae to give a debut to 19-year-old half-back Marc Sneyd.

Mathers double

Warrington, who were without suspended England forward Ben Westwood, looked the sharper side throughout the opening 40 minutes but they could never pull clear of a spirited Reds side.

It took the visitors until the 17th minute to open the scoring, in-form right winger Chris Hicks picking up from where he left off in last Sunday's Challenge Cup win at Bradford by taking full-back Richard Mathers' pass and wrong-footing the Reds defence to finish decisively at the corner.

The Salford defence opened up invitingly for Mathers to jink his way over for a second on 25 minutes, but Chris Bridge was wide with both conversion attempts and the home side cut the gap to just two points when full-back Mark Henry gathered Jeremy Smith's kick over the Warrington defence to touch down for a try converted by Steve Tyrer.

However, the visitors always looked the more dangerous side and it was no surprise when they struck again six minutes before the break when Chris Riley broke clear down the left wing and sent Mathers in for his second try.

This time Bridge kicked the goal and added a penalty in stoppage time to give his side a 10-point cushion at the break.

Warrington had all the early pressure in the second period but the Salford defence held firm and the home side actually scored the first try of the half against the run of play.

Flowing move

A 40-20 kick from Matty Smith, making up for a dismal first half in which he had three attempted clearance kicks charged down, set up the position for left winger Jodie Broughton to finish off a flowing cross-field move for a second try which made it 16-10.

That energised the Reds still further and Warrington were forced to draw on all their resilience to hang onto their lead as the game entered a tense final quarter.

But Salford lacked the composure to press home their advantage and a Lee Briers drop goal on 63 minutes gave Tony Smith's men some breathing space, before hooker Mickey Higham made sure of the win when he wriggled over for his side's fourth try four minutes from the end.

Bridge kicked his third goal and second-rower David Solomona rubbed salt into Salford's wounds by forcing his way over in stoppage time for a fifth try.