Warrington 12-38 Salford: Niall Evalds treble seals Red Devils win

Match stats: Warrington 12-38 Salford

Warrington tries: Dwyer (34), Lineham (64)
Goals: Patton (34,64) 

Salford tries: Bibby (15), Evalds (17,59), Sa'u (23,38,50), Brinning (75)
Goals: O'Brien (15,17,23,59,75) 

Match report

Winger Niall Evalds ran in a hat-trick of tries as Salford kept the pressure on Betfred Super League leaders Castleford with a resounding 38-12 win over struggling Warrington at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Ian Watson's red-hot Devils scored seven tries to two, five of them through their lethal left flank, to make it 10 wins from their last 11 league games and pile on the agony for Warrington, who have won just one of their last six and have conceded 78 points in the last four days.

Salford avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth last year but this victory keeps them firmly on course for a first ever semi-final as they go past the halfway mark in the 2017 season.

Warrington had Dec Patton lining up at half-back alongside Kevin Brown in place of the injured Kurt Gidley while Salford coach Ian Watson enjoyed tremendous success after breaking up his regular half-back partnership.

Former Catalans Dragons stand-off Todd Carney was impressive on only his second start for the Red Devils in the absence of a rested Michael Dobson while his half-back Robert Lui demonstrated his full bag of tricks to run the show.

Yet Warrington made the brighter start, making all the early running despite being unable to breach the tight-knit Salford defence apart from when hooker Daryl Clark was turned onto his back over the line.

The visitors soaked up the pressure and struck with two tries in three minutes to demonstrate their potency.

Centre Jake Bibby produced a clinical finish after taking second rower Ben Murdoch-Masila's smart offload and Evalds finished off a break by Carney for his first try.

It got worse for the Wolves when Evalds put centre Junior Sa'u over for a third try midway through the first half and Gareth O'Brien's third conversion made it 18-0 at almost a point a minute.

It looked a hopeless cause for the home side when second rower Benjamin Jullien was sin-binned for delaying a quick re-start but they pulled a try back while down to 12 men when replacement hooker Brad Dwyer forced his way over from dummy half.

Patton added the goal but Warrington conceded again three minutes before half-time when a break through the middle by Lui set up the position for Sa'u to grab his second try.

Salford managed that while down to 12 men themselves, with second rower Weller Hauraki shown a yellow card for obstructing full-back Stefan Ratchford as he chased his own kick.

At 22-6, Salford were in control and they strengthened their grip eight minutes into the second half when the ever-threatening Sa'u punched another hole in the Warrington defence to get Evalds over for his second try before he swooped on Carney's clever kick to complete his hat-trick.

Winger Tom Lineham scored a consolation try for the home side but Salford had the final say when a 40-20 kick from O'Brien set up the position for hooker Kris Brining to force his way over for their seventh try, O'Brien taking his goal tally to five.

Match reaction

Warrington coach Tony Smith: "As unpleasant as it is, I don't give in easily.

"I'm just disappointed with the way we're playing, it's not about how I feel.

"We as a group are not playing well enough over the weekend.

"I thought we started with some promise but we didn't convert that into points and our heads dropped.

"We had different half-backs again, we haven't got that continuity. We were also playing against a team playing with confidence and executing well.

"We've got to tough it out and work hard, keep going with it.

"We're hurting. It's been a tough couple of days for us."

Salford coach Ian Watson: "That was a big one for us. It's a great result. It's about six years since we last won here and we've done the double as well. It will be a long time since that happened in Salford's history.

"We're doing great at the moment but we won't get carried away. We know where we want to be and what we want to achieve but we'll take every week as it comes.

"The guys that came in did great. Todd Carney was outstanding, Jake Bibby and Josh Wood were good. We made some changes and that gave us real energy and enthusiasm.

"Todd had been getting close in training and then breaking down with a calf issue, whether that's an age thing or not, we're not sure.

"From not having had a lot of game time, he deserves a lot of credit for that kind of performance. He's knuckled down and waited for his opportunity.

"It's a great selection headache to have."