Littler bows out in style
Salford finished the engage Super League season on a high as Stuart Littler enjoyed the perfect send-off.
Last Updated: 06/09/10 2:32pm
Salford finished the engage Super League season on a high as Stuart Littler enjoyed the perfect send-off.
Littler ended his Salford career by scoring the winning try against Wakefield, to ensure the Reds finished 12th in the engage Super League.
Littler, captain for the day, went over for the key score, with Sean Gleeson's try two minutes from time merely a consolation for the Wildcats.
All the points came in the second half of an error-strewn contest, with Wakefield having to settle for 11th place after failing to notch the victory needed to climb above Bradford in 10th.
The Reds are set for a major shake-up in personnel during the close season, with eight of their senior players not returning.
Regular skipper Malcolm Alker and Willie Talau are retiring - although Alker will remain on the coaching staff - with Karl Fitzpatrick, Littler, Jeremy Smith, Phil Leuluai, Steve Tryer, Ian Sibbit and Luke Swain leaving.
Alker, given a guard of honour by team-mates before kick off, and Fitzpatrick were missing through injury but the others made final appearances for the club.
Wakefield included Tevita Leo-Latu, who is joining Salford next season, and Sean Gleeson who is also expected to be at the Reds in 2010.
Leo-Latu and Gleeson grabbed the Wakefield tries with Stefan Ratchford the Reds' man of the match.
It was a last hurrah too for Jason Demetriou as Wakefield aimed to end a run of five defeats.
Salford, who had lost four in a row, made the brighter start with Jodie Broughton just failing to gather a teasing Ratchford kick.
But Wakefield would have snatched the lead had Demetriou been able to gather Damien Blanch's tap back from Ben Jeffries' kick.
Then Gleeson was denied by a double tackle from Broughton and Willie Talau.
Marc Sneyd's 40-20 gave Salford the chance to threaten the Wakefield line and Steve Tyrer went over in the corner but the try was disallowed for a forward pass.
But neither side had enough inventiveness to penetrate their opponent's defensive line and the first half ended with the distinctly old-fashioned scoreline of 0-0.
Error
Wakefield finally broke the deadlock after only 59 seconds of the second period when a Broughton error allowed Leo-Latu to scoop up the ball and claim his fifth try of the season, with Jeffries tagging on the conversion.
But Salford hit back with smart work from Ratchford and Talau allowing Ashley Gibson to slip a pass for Tyrer to go over in the corner.
Tyrer's well-struck conversion attempt looked to drift between the posts but the touch judges ruled the kick had missed.
Salford went ahead for the first time when Ray Cashmere took a pass from 18-year-old Gareth Owen to bulldoze through a clutch of defenders and crash over under the posts, with Tyrer adding the conversion to make it 10-6.
Littler's touchdown and Tyrer's conversion clinched victory for Salford, with Leuluai then having an effort disallowed for a double movement.
Gleeson went over for a late Wildcats' score but by then Salford had just their eighth win of the season in the bag.
