Chris Sandow drop goal snatches victory for Warrington at Salford
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 06/03/16 11:58am
Warrington staged a tremendous fightback from 18 points down to snatch a 31-30 victory over Salford in a thriller at the AJ Bell Stadium.
The Wolves were staring at a first defeat of the season when their former player Gareth O'Brien kicked Salford into an 18-point lead after 49 minutes.
But centre Ryan Atkins scored two tries in four minutes to give the visitors renewed hope and after Ashton Sims' fifth try enabled them to draw level, scrum-half Chris Sandow landed a drop goal as the hooter sounded to break Salford's hearts for the second successive week.
Warrington, who were without Kurt Gidley and Daryl Clark, went into the game with the best defensive record after three rounds but they looked fragile from the start, with centre Junior Sa'u effortlessly slicing through their line for the opening try after just two minutes.
The Red Devils took full advantage of three penalties awarded to them in the first four minutes to pile on the pressure, but it was the Wolves' turn to make possession count when referee Robert Hicks evened up the penalty count as they hit the lead with two tries in three minutes.
Stand-off Stefan Ratchford, making his first appearance of the season after recovering from knee surgery, drew two defenders to get Jack Hughes over for his first try for the club before his second row partner Ben Currie went in for a solo score.
Sandow added both conversions to make it 12-6 but it merely energised Salford, who dominated the rest of the first half to run in 22 unanswered points.
Second rower Josh Jones was the first man to reach Michael Dobson's grubber kick on 16 minutes and O'Brien kicked his first goal to level the scores.
Jones' break then created the position for winger Greg Johnson to force his way over and O'Brien's 40-20 kick set up the position for Sa'u to score his second try as he plucked Dobson's kick out of the air.
O'Brien could hardly put a foot wrong and it was his pass that got centre Josh Griffin racing away for Salford's fifth seven minutes before the break as the home side left to a standing ovation.
Defences tightened up as rain began to make life difficult for both teams and the only score in the third quarter was a penalty to O'Brien.
Spaces began to re-appear after both sides were reduced to 12 men for a spell after Currie and Salford winger Justin Carney were yellow-carded and Warrington pulled a try back through Atkins on the hour.
When Atkins followed up Sandow's grubber kick to score a second on 63 minutes, the gap was down to just six points. It was all square two minutes later when skipper Chris Hill made a half-break and offloaded for his fellow front-rower Sims to touch down.
Sandow's fifth goal made it 30-30 but Salford had the best chances to win it with Dobson and Robert Lui both failing with drop-goal attempts before Warrington had the final say.
Sandow was off target with a long-range penalty attempt a minute from the end but he just had enough time to slot over a drop goal from similar range to land the crucial blow.
