Salford Topple League Leaders

THE last two unbeaten teams in the English League’s northern section locked horns on Sunday, and fought out a superb match at Sugden Sports Centre in Manchester.

Manchester were top of the league, while local rivals Salford were second and snapping at their heels.

Salford began at a good pace and were playing some exciting handball which opened up a Manchester defence which was not performing as efficiently as in their past few matches.

After 15 minutes, Salford had forged into a 13-4 lead, forcing Manchester into a timeout to reorganise.

Manchester came back into the game and stopped Salford from every corner of the court, with clinical fast breaks from Georgiou and Hammache, thus levelling at 13-13 with an on-the-buzzer shot from Girost.

The second half started well for Manchester who took a two-goal lead. But the Mancunians began to accumulate mistakes, with poor ball circulation leading to too many ball losses, poor shots from the wings and almost no initiative from nine metres.

In the meantime Salford had reorganised, and equalised soon before taking a deserved lead, and extending to a 29-25 victory.

Josh Hampson scored nine times for Salford, as did Georgiou for Manchester.