I appreciate it’s a friendly and there is no points or silverware at stake tonight but I believe it’s hugely important we win and we win by some margin. I believe there will be quite a few prospect fans with an eye on tonight’s result and for the next few matches for that matter. Start the year poorly and we give people the excuse they are looking for not to attend.

I appreciate the coaches will probably just view it as an opportunity to blood in the new blokes, but commercially these first 4-5 games are absolutely massive if we are going to attract a lot more people to Barton this year.

I’m in no doubt whatsoever the good Doc will be making the same point loud and crystal clear. It is now down to the serious business of winning rugby league matches. COME ON SALFORD!!

These friendly games against lower division clubs are always tricky. Nothing to gain and a lot to lose.

Can't agree with that at all. The main thing tonight - the [ionly[/i thing - is that everyone gets through it unscathed. The result is irrelevant. I wouldn't want a Salford player to get injured trying to stop what ought to be a routine win for Leigh, who should go into this game as clear favourites. They've got a more settled squad, and have already got a game under their belts.

The really important game is against Wakefield.

I agree Wakefield is more important but can you not see the damage a poor performance could have? Remember the negative impact of the Leigh defeat 2 years ago? As for injuries they are unavoidable. The only way to eliminate the risk of injury is not to play. Forget all the injury nonsense they can happen anytime, we need a decent performance.

Job done it's important we keep building some momentum.

Awful weather put some real positives taken from tonight's game. And no injuries bonus!

Yes you have to consider it was the first hit out with many new players in dreadful conditions. Furthermore we also have five 1st team players to come in yet. It's up to the boys to turn it up a few notches now against Warrington and then rip into Wakey week 1.

Awful conditions, completely levelled the game up. Without those conditions I honestly think we'd have put 40 on Leigh, that's no disrespect to them because they're a solid team. Impressed with Greg Johnson, can see him being our star signing.

Couldn't of put it better myself.

Only 26-16? Should have put 70 on them with that paper squad.

If that was an official SL game it wouldn't of gone ahead.

I'm not sure what the weather is like in Australia but it was terrible at Leigh.

Nope, still can't see it I'm afraid. I doubt any prospective fans would be swayed by a poor performance because, firstly, how many would have known the game was being played, and, secondly, how would they know about the performance? It wasn't covered on local radio last night, and wasn't mentioned on the local sports bulletin at 7:30 this morning. It's not in my morning paper either. Someone would have to go to an awful lot of effort to find out about it, and I doubt many would. And even if they did, someone who was put off by the outcome of what is little more than a joint training session involving Leigh and Salford was never likely to be in it for the long haul anyway.

No. The important thing was to have a hit out and not pick up injuries. The time to impress is in three weeks, when a full strength team is needed to face up to a fired up Wakefield team who will be far from pushovers.

Turns out they won though. Which is nice.

Behave yourself Worzel. Leigh will finish in the top 4 of the Championship. Good luck to them.

i do see the argument that we needed to win against leigh its just a message to the fans who are looking at the newspaper reportd at the moment deciding if salford will be worth a watch this season

If we beat Wire / keep it respectable in the next friendly that will send a messge out for sure that salford are going places

Thanks Optimist. Lose to Warrington by 40-50 points and some people will be switched off, regardless of it being a friendly. I
can't see why some fail to see the importance of gaining some momentum and hitting the ground running.

If we had sold 5000 season tickets the situation would be a different but right now we need to sell the club to people.

The result is all over Twitter, Facebook and will no doubt be featured in this weeks Salford advertiser!! People who want to know will know, trust me. Getting off to a good start will be much more effective than canvassing pubs and schools.

I wonder too.

Friendlys are just that! Never read too much into them. Saints only beat batley by 20 at home,they are one of the favourites this year! Leeds have just been beaten by hunslet, Bradford beaten by Dewsbury today and Hull fc who were easily beaten by Bradford beat Hull kr today. What do these results mean? Nothing thats what. When SL starts we'll see what sides can really do when it matters.Friendlys are used to try new things out, to test different players out etc. Its not like we lost!

Under normal circumstances I would tend to agree but considering the new branding, the huge investment and disappointing season ticket sales, I believe these games are more significant than usual.

England lost to Italy in a friendly, then improved with every game after that and came really good in the semi

Yes they did but they had already sold out the Huddersfield and Hull matches.

The point is we are stuggling to sell season tickets and the more positivity we can create by playing well, winning matches and having a good start the better. This isn't about questioning if the team will come good, it's about the importance of positively influencing new or lapsed support.

The results of friendlies are totally irrelevant IMHO.

They are one off games which don't mean anything.

Remember 2006? We played Wire on a Wednesday night and they put 50odd on us. 10 days later on the opening day of the season we beat them.

All friendlies are good for is blowing out the cobwebs before the season begins.

Season ticket sales, i think we will poss only sell another 200, for the season,

But i think the deals that the club are doing with tickets for matches 3 games for x amount 6 games for x amount etc etc etc, will hopefully fly of the shelf.

I also think sales on the day by the walk up fan, will increase if we start to play well , even if we get beat, aslong as we put in a good performance and get good rite ups in the press and dont get slated.the fans will turn up and pay.

but i also think the smc need to sort out pay on the gate at north and south stands, even if its only a cple of gates it must be better than joining a que twice.

Aslong as we finish in the top 6 this season and do well in the play offs, the season tickets will fly of the shelf next season.

But we need to help our sleves with good advertisement, a good product on the pitch and off. and good press from the local and the daily press.