TASI, immense again tonight, don't know why Harris is putting out best prop on the bench, however he took his try well. His try was a result of a great break from HOOD, who again proved himself, we look far much better when he is behind the PTB. All I've done so far is ring the kids praises, but it's nice to see us have a proper hooker instead of putting square pegs in round holes. Hood first touch resulted in a break, was abit silly with his pass to Johnson before half time, but his game management will improve with experience. For me Hood has to be in the 17 week in week out, which means our little French superstar will have to be sat in the stands. Did not miss him one bit tonight, our best defensive performance of the season. LOCKE also had his best game of the season, the 1 on 1 in first ten minutes, I was so peronsally please for him after all the stick he reveives. DOBSON, also had his best game in a Salford shirt, towering bombs and place kicking into touch, somethings we've missed for years. Last mention goes to PATTERSON, from my view in west stand he looked out on his feet after 20 minutes but never stopped and deserved his try.

All of the above said will be clouded over because of another poor crowd and B, Widnes were bound to lose after the short turn around.

Agreed. Considering the offers and big discounts on tickets the crowd was very disappointing.

A positive post but why do you feel the need to put but a dampener on it by having an pointless pop at a young player that's come through our academy system?Especially when you know any criticism of Fages on here will provoke a reaction. Needless provocation when all supporters should be enjoying and sharing a much improved performance.

Neil Barker I didn't think it was too bad for a Thursday night on Sky.

Neil Barker = dick = Mario.

What was the crowd?

3,400

Good performance first half was a bit scratchy but second half they looked tired and we took advantage. 1-17 all put in shifts buy my mom was Johnson makes a difference when he gets ball in hand. Sau has a job to get back in the team as i feel MCB & Johnson could frighten the hell out of defences. Not getting to carried away as we now need to back this up with wins Huddersfield & Wigan then people will take notice.

Didn't realise I waa critising Fages? Just that for me, we are a better side without him in it? Unless we start with Hood and bring him on, I have a feeling Harris likes Lee though, so will take something special to take the 9 spot off him. Unless like in second half last night when Hood came back on and Lee went to loose with Hansen going back to second row. Only reason I comment mainly on Lee, Fages and Hood is that many moons ago I indeed played that position, asume like other amature players always key a keen eye on someone who plays there position. Might just be me....

Forgot to add, there was lots of back slapping after tries, forcing errors, was good to see. Wonder if this was instructed or the guys have grievance over something and showing solidarity?

I thought the pack drove ball forward really well last night, Tasi and taylor were both immense, and Paterson was a handful every time he got the ball. Such a shame we didn't sign him two years ago, instead of Hock, as he poses a similar threat without the brain farts. In the second half, the team started to put a few moves on and Dobson's kicking game strangled the life out of them. Which, along with Hood's dummy half play, was pleasing to see.

Granted Widnes weren't at their best, but they've won games without brown and looking at last nights game he's the only player that would have improved their execution. Whereas all we had to do was methodically complete our sets, and with Paterson and Grifiin on the right we'll regularly get the ball back after an attacking kick.

If the club are to continue building over the next few seasons, taylor and hood need to be signed up on longer term deals.

Fair result last night we comfortably beat what was put infront of us, Widnes didn't really challenge us defensively which is where the major concern has been.
Hood looked good when he came on and give us a real go forward from dummy half which we haven't had in a while, for me he cannot be left out of the 17 if fit.
Not sure what everyone's opinion on Locke was last night but he did put in 80 mins and is getting fitter, he did show glimpses but why won't he take a ball up when first receiver.
He always releases to the winger on two occasions he passed to Chase and Johnson and they both got murdered, surprised Chase let it go.
Highest paid player on the pitch and won't run it in.

Still think we're playing with too many wingers in the three quarters against a decent team last night we would've been exposed on the flanks.

But positive result up to 4th and now unbeaten 8/10 at home.....fortress AJBell.

Thought your players looked to have a completely different attitude to when you played us last week.
Widnes are not a bad side, you just played well.

I noticed that the backs were used a lot more than usual in the first 4 tackles or so. I don't know if this was to conserve the forwards energy because second half the forwards came out storming. Impressive performance all round.

RE the backs: very ipressed last night.
I feel we were using them more as Widnes seemed to rush through their substitutions in the first half: I commented that they would find it difficult to rest a tired forward later in the game and this did happen: the use of our backs kept our forwards fresher.
I also felt our structures looked better.

On a downer was Paterson limping off : we need him

Harauki: when we bought him, I thought "Why?" as he seemed to me to be only average when he was at Cas.
Have I been proved wrong. Apologies. [size=50(Obviously not an expert)[/size

You can only beat what's in front of you, tonight that wasn't very much but you did the job well. I doubt if your pack will have an easier night all season, which created space for the dummy halves to keep you going forward and your half backs to dictate play at ease. Defensively you were very quick and tight, Widnes rarely had the skill to counteract that due in some part to a strange selection from Betts.
You could see the crowd growing with the team as the game went on - see you in a few weeks at LSV, well I wont damn holiday.

I thought it was an impressive performance, especially from Hood and Patterson.

Widnes were distinctly average, so it's still hard to gauge how well we played in the grand scheme of things. There seemed to be a lot more camaraderie from the team as a whole; generously giving each other a pat on the back after a successful play.

Only one downer from me - some of our fans were hurling abuse at the Widnes fans on the way out of the ground, calling them "murderers". Save that rubbish for football. Hugely embarrassing stuff.

There was some embarrassing crap going on outside. A lad in his twenties shouting "Widnes suck" at the top of his voice before looking dead proud of himself just made me cringe. And I forgot there were no council houses in Salford...

As for the game, I can't add a lot, good performance, should have been more, but can't complain. I just hope we can build on it now.

Last night was quality, great performance from the lads.

There was some big improments in attitude, kicking game and most importantly defence.

I also brought 3 new fans to the game last night and they are all buzzing for the next home game against Wigan.

I also had no traffic issues getting too and from the game. I find the best way is to get a taxi from near the Scoda garage on the roundabout.

Great night all around.

I really hope we can get a 6000+ crowd v Wigan on easter Monday. Very optimistic after last nights performance we are still nowhere near our best yet as a team.

Thought the Pack went really well last night. Taylor in Particular, we should be pulling out all the stops to secure him moving forward. On a separate note does anybody know what the Music is when the Video ref is debating his decision? I have a feeling its from a film but I cant quite place it? I've found myself humming it all morning so far. This is probably due to the 25 minutes of it we were subjected to last night as the Video ref dragged out every decision! Any assistance would be appreciated.

Fair enough. I just interpreted your comment about 'our little french superstar will have to sit in the stands' as something aimed deliberately at our Theo Fages admirers. Especially after split opinion on here recently about his abilities.

As for the back slapping and forced errors you mention, yes it's great to see and it brought back a few memories of the team spirit we used to show about 10 years ago.

Widnes had Ah Van, Brown, White, Johnson, Tickle, Galea, Tickle,Cahill and Isa out injured. Even Clarkson went off injured with Flynn, and we are at the bare bones. Playing a tough game on Sunday with less of a turnaround i knew we would get beat.

The tickle twins?

I wonder the way things are going we will have a few u19s playing like the Chappelhow brothers.

Thought Hood was excellent, looked really quick and caused Widnes loads of problems.

Pack dominated and allowed Chase and Dobson to do their stuff.

I just hope we can build on this and at least compete in our next 3 games.

I’ve not got much more to add about yesterdays game, but I would like to give a massive pat on the back to Caton-Brown. He has quite rightly been lambasted for his defence recently, but yesterday he made some great defensive reads and one on one tackles. I also thought our back 3 were immense, but lets not get too carried away, yes lets enjoy it, but we’ve got 3 massive games coming up that will really show where we are at. If we can get a result at Huddersfield there is no reason why we shouldn’t get over 6k against Wigan.