Salford book Cup semi-final spot

SALFORD booked their spot in the semi finals of the EHA Men’s Cup when they beat Northern Section rivals Liverpool 33-20 on Saturday.

Current league leaders Salford clearly went into the game as favourites, but Liverpool, with the return of their players from England U18 duty, were determined not to let their local rivals have it all their own way. 

The first half of the game got away slowly for both teams. It has been a while since Salford last played a competitive fixture with players being away with GB and England a little bit of rust had set in to the team's cohesion and they struggled to capitalise on their early attacks. 

Indeed, Liverpool's young squad started the better, scoring the first goal of the game and keeping the score to one goal apiece after five minutes. Salford did eventually get into to gear though and took little further time to motor up a bit of a lead.

A strong spell between 5 minutes and 10 minutes saw them take a 5 goal lead at 7 to 2. This prompted a minor come back from Liverpool to bring the scores back to within three before Salford pushed on again to finish the first half ten goals to the good at 17-7.

A ten goal deficit at half time is not something many teams can overcome, especially when playing against one of the strongest defensive units in the league. However, full credit needs to go to the plucky young Liverpool squad. At no point did they give up. Indeed, coming out after half time you could have said they were the more hungry of the teams for victory. 

Whilst the teams swapped goal for goal during the first five minutes of the second half, the second 5 minute period was the mirror opposite of the first half. This time it was Liverpool that outscored Salford by 6 goals to 1 to bring the scores back to within 5. Alas, though, that was the closest Liverpool were to come. 

Taking back control of the game, Salford regrouped and applied a little bit more focus to the job at hand. In doing so they cut out many of the basic errors that had cost them dearly in the first period of the half. 

With just over 20 minutes gone their lead was back up to 10 and by the end of the half Salford had managed to extend their lead to 13 to win by 33 goals to 20.  

Salford will take on Cambridge in the semi finals on May 12/13 after they beat Bath University 35-24. 

* In the English Leagues, Ruislip Eagles convincingly beat Warrington Wolves 38-16 at Birchwood in the women’s First Division, while Olympia beat Thames 37-27. 

The English Men’s League play-offs continue this Sunday with leaders Salford taking on third-placed Ruislip Eagles at SportHouse in Barking on Sunday. 

And on the same day, London GD take on Manchester and Cambridge play Leeds, both at Leyton SCORE Centre.

12th consecutive victory for Salford

EIGHT goals from Jack Hennessy (pictured) helped Salford beat Manchester 31-14 on Sunday, a 12th consecutive league victory this season for the table-topping outfit.

With two games left Salford have secured the northern section, while Manchester and Leeds Hornets will join them in the end of season play-offs.

Leeds secured their spot in the 20-27 victory over Nottingham University, while they were helped by a six-point deduction imposed on Liverpool Wolves for playing an unregistered player.

That deduction is currently being appealed, as it is crucial to the make-up of the play-offs.

In other action on Sunday, Liverpool beat Deva 26-17, and University of Manchester beat Liverpool Speke Garston 32-24.

Salford March on in National League

Salford maintained their unbeaten run in the English National League’s Northern Section on Sunday but were made to work hard in the first half by a resurgent University of Manchester team.

Salford struggled in the first half and were two goals down at the start of the game. Salford made some changes and managed to steady the ship and take a narrow lead into the second half.

With first choice playmaker Ciaran Williams still out injured and on form pivot Stu Campbell tweaking his hamstring in training, Salford turned to their younger players and Ryan Goodwin (3 goals) and Steven Clarke (4 goals) both stepped up.

The second half saw an immediate response from the Salford team and they quickly stretched their lead to 18-10 and did enough to see the game off.

Coach Bill Baillie said after the game: “A win’s a win, and although we are not happy with the performance we are happy to take all three points. In the second half our 6:0 defence was solid and well marshalled by Rafik Tahraoui (pictured) and Matt Lee.”

Salford will now meet fourth-placed Deva on Tuesday 8:00pm, 7th Feb at Fit City Pendlebury and hope to maintain their unbeaten streak.

* Elsewhere, Deva and Nottingham University drew 31-31, while Leeds Hornets narrowly overcame Manchester 22-21.

Salford Beat Rivals Liverpool Wolves

SALFORD opened up a five-point lead at the top of the National League (North) table after they overcame previously unbeaten Liverpool Wolves 35-16 in their latest match at Greenbank Sports Academy in Liverpool.

A hard-fought match was in prospect between the teams first and second in the league, not least because two young Wolves players moved to Salford in the summer.

But while Salford had a full-strength team, Liverpool had just two on the bench because of injuries and unavailabilities.

Nevertheless, the game started with great intensity, Salford playing a 5-1 aggressive defence and Liverpool Wolves choosing a slightly more conservative deep 6 nil defence.

The first 20 minutes showed moments of very good defensive handball. Both teams were holding each other with hard tough defences. Unfortunately, Liverpool ran out of steam as their lack of replacements took its toll.

Tiredness caused late tackles and several two-minute exclusions, which Salford punished and used to open up a 13-6 lead at the break.

The second half was all Salford as they stepped up several gears.

It was 11 minutes later when Liverpool scored their next goal, but in the meantime Salford had scored 10, effective killing the game as a contest and they went on to win 35-16.

Notable performances came from Salford's playmaker Ciaran Williams with 9 assists, while Stuart Latchford and Aden Woodall scored six goals apiece.

The best players for Liverpool Wolves were a never-stop-fighting Sean Feery and Stu Clark in goal who, with some fantastic saves, kept the goal difference in check.

In other action at Greenbank, Manchester maintained their unbeaten record with a 30-24 victory over Nottingham University with Georgiou top-scoring with nine goals.

University of Manchester secured their first victory of the season with a 21-20 win over Leeds Hornets, while Deva beat Liverpool Speke Garston 28-20.

* In the Southern Section, Bath were unlucky not to secure their first league win of the season over Oxford University on Sunday.

Level at 13-13 at half time, they were just edged out 29-32 by their rivals, who are second in the table.

Olympia battled to a narrow 21-19 victory over Ruislip Eagles, despite only having a bare seven players for the clash while the Eagles had 13.

Mohammed El Hawary scored nine for Olympia, while Toufik Haddadou added four.

And early league leaders London GD won 36-23 over Cambridge to maintain their top of the table position and give their points difference a major boost.

Leaders Salford Face Great Dane

LEADERS Salford take on second-placed Great Dane this Saturday in what could prove to be the turning point of this season’s English Men’s League.

Unbeaten heading into the play-offs, Salford have suffered at the hands of Southern section teams in the play-offs, and will concede top spot this Sunday if they lose the clash at the Greenbank Sports Academy in Liverpool.

The first game of the session sees Nottingham University take on Ruislip Eagles, while Manchester play Olympia before the final game sees the big clash of the afternoon.

Unbeaten Salford Surge into Play-offs

UNBEATEN Salford will go into the end of season play-offs unbeaten and top of the table after securing two victories in the last week.

They won the Northern Section title on Sunday when they beat second-placed Manchester 25-18, and then went on to complete the season unbeaten with a 35-15 win over Nottingham University on Tuesday night.

With both those sides also going forward to the play-offs and results from the normal season being carried forward, it has been a crucially important seven days for Salford.

No other team had scored more than 20 goals at Nottingham prior to Tuesday’s game, but Salford were already 14-7 ahead at half time and continued to dominate afterwards.

Strong defence - especially from Popovic and Marsh - held a good Nottingham attack at bay, while Jack Hennessy and Aden Woodall were in free-scoring mode, with 12 and 10 respectively.

With a two week break before the play-offs start on February 27, Salford will be aiming to keep their momentum going for their opening match against Olympia, who made it all the way to the European Challenge Cup last season.

Salford’s crucial win over Manchester proved to be a thrilling encounter and a fitting way to decide the fate of the Northern title.

The Mancunians took a three-goal lead after just five minutes, but Salford reacted quickly with a compact 6-0 defensive line which frustrated the Manchester strikers.

Salford's efficiency from nine metres was better than their opponents, and they created gaps in the defence. And with several missed shots and poor passes Manchester’s early lead was gone after ten minutes, and Salford were ahead by five goals at the break.

During the second half Manchester battled hard to reduce the deficit, but never managed to get closer than three goals, while Salford’s counter attacks established a seven-goal win.

Free-scoring play from Aden Woodall and Jack Hennessy, who scored six and seven goals respectively, along with a strong performance in goal from Rob Avery, helped Salford take the win.

Meanwhile, Liverpool Wolves beat University of Manchester 31-16 and Deva won 22-16 against Liverpool Speke Garston.

* In the southern section, Cambridge secured their first ever win over Southern Section winners Great Dane, 22-20, while Ruislip Eagles scraped past Bath University 30-28.

But Cambridge women narrowly missed out on doing the same, going down 24-22 to Great Dane women in a friendly clash on Sunday.

Slick Salford Maintain Title Tilt

THE only unbeaten team left in the Men’s English League, Salford maintained their challenge for the title with an emphatic 35-21 victory over Manchester University on Sunday.

The two sides battled out a draw earlier in the season, making third-placed Manchester university the only side to take points away from Salford this season.

But it was a different story on Sunday.

After opening up an early lead, Salford never trailed and went in at half time leading 18 - 13. But the students came out after half time determined to regain the advantage.

However, the Salford defence that proved so effective against Manchester the week before became virtually impenetrable for their rivals.

Despite their valiant efforts, they only managed to score four goals in the first 20 minutes of the half and only eight in total.

In contrast, Salford scored a further 18 goals and finished the game confident 35-21 winners.

Elsewhere, Liverpool Wolves beat Deva 29-17, while Nottingham University were 31-15 winners over Liverpool Speke Garston.

Nottingham moved up to third on the back of that victory, and with games in hand they look set to mount a good challenge for the Northern Section title.

Manchester were handed a 10-0 victory over Wirral by default after the Merseyside outfit failed to raise a side for the clash against the league leaders.

* In the Southern Section, Ruislip Eagles edged past Olympia 24-23 in a thrilling encounter on Sunday.
Ruislip took the initiative right from the start and put Olympia under pressure establishing a four-goal lead thanks to several goals from Fabien Colette.

Olympia looked shaken but stood strong, and with Toufik Haddadou's goals they reduced the gap to reach half time with only a one goal deficit 13-14.

The Eagles started the second half stronger and were ahead up to five goals with 15 minutes remaining. However a fighting Olympia team managed to come back in the game and even led by one with just four minutes remaining.

Ruislip then launched one last big effort to turn the game at their advantage and finished victorious 24-23 after endless defensive displays.