Salford RLFC suffered a 20-18 defeat against city rivals Swinton Lions on derby day.
Despite Oli Garmston scoring two tries and Lewis Pilling also crossing the try line, Salford fell to an
agonising first defeat against Swinton in 41 years.
Following full-time at the Brick Community Stadium, Swinton lifted the Centenary Cup, which
celebrates 100 years of Salford’s ‘city’ status.
The result meant that Salford slipped to 13th in the Championship, whilst Swinton climbed into 17th
position with just two remaining fixtures this season.
The match started with an intense physical exchange, which had all the hallmarks of a derby.
In the 8th minute, Salford faced a major setback early on after an off-ball incident between both sets
of players resulted in Danny Lynch and Charlie Glover being sent to the sin-bin.
During this period, Swinton looked to capitalise on a two-player advantage and had multiple chances
to take the lead but Salford were resilient in defence.
However, the breakthrough did eventually come in the 19th minute, when Swinton spread the ball
left, before Jack Stevens took advantage of an aggressive edge defence and put a kick in behind which
Ellis Anderson caught and collected to score.
Salford responded just five minutes later while attacking close to the Swinton try line.
A crashing carry and quick play-the-ball by Jack Bibby laid the foundation for Brad Dwyer to quickly
exploit space in behind the rook before firing a quick pass to Oli Garmston who went over in front of
the Salford faithful to level the game at 6-6.
Salford dominated the next few sets and gained valuable field position and were attacking deep in
Swinton’s half.
Dave Hewitt’s side took the lead when Lewis Pilling’s fake pass left defenders on the ground before
he made a dart for the try line and touched down to score Salford’s second try of the afternoon in the
34th minute.
Salford RLFC led 12-6 at half-time as Swinton were unable to capitalise on early pressure.
Swinton started the second half the better of the two sides and received great field position from the
kick-off after a mix-up saw the ball bounce into touch.
The Lions capitalised this time, and levelled the game at 12-12 when Salford’s right edge was exploited and Aaron Lynch had time and space to score a try in the corner.
Anthony Murray’s Swinton side were rejuvenated following the interval and showed no sign of
slowing when Harry Higham made a line break and caught the Salford defence out, before scoring to
give the Lions the lead.
In the 60th minute, Swinton received a penalty around 30 metres out and Jack Stevens converted his
fourth kick of the afternoon to extend their lead to 20-12.
Salford managed to claw a try back in the 64th minute with Oli Garmston claiming his second try of
the match but it was not enough as Swinton ran out 20-18 victors and claimed the Centenary Cup.
By Aydin Gorgun
