Warriors look to keep up pressure on Super League top three as Salford come to town

Wigan Warriors could maintain some pressure on Super League’s current top three with a win over Salford Red Devils at the DW stadium on Friday night.

Adrian Lam’s Warriors side currently sit fourth in the league table with 11 victories in 17 games and a win percentage of just over 64% following a campaign which has swung one way and then the other in terms of winning runs and losing runs respectively.

The Cherry and Whites are comfortably ahead of fifth-placed Hull FC and some positive form in the coming weeks would only benefit Lam’s men going into the end-of-season play-offs as well as opening up the possibility of creeping into that top three.

To do that, Wigan just have to keep winning and success against Salford would secure back-to-back victories at the DW stadium following on from last Sunday’s 50-6 hammering of neighbours Leigh Centurions. Up against Super League’s bottom club, the Warriors took full advantage and grabbed nine tries, including a hat trick for youngster Umyla Hanley.

Friday night’s visitors – Richard Marshall’s Salford – have had an indifferent campaign to date and sit tenth in the league table at the time of writing with four victories in 14 outings and a lowly win percentage of circa 28.5%.

With no danger of relegation now, and the play-offs almost a mathematical impossibility, it’s fair to say that the Red Devils can be put into the ‘mid-table’ obscurity category with room for improvement in the next campaign. Building momentum for 2022 will require a good end to this season though, so that incentive is definitely still there for Salford.

Notably, the trip to Wigan will be a first game in two weeks for Marshall’s men, who have been suffering from COVID within the camp. In their last outing, they lost 38-16 away at Leeds Rhinos having failed to register a single point in the first half.

Squads

Ahead of tonight’s game, the Warriors were handed a huge boost with influential players returning from injury. Fullback Zak Hardaker has been absent since late May with a neck injury and has been missed but is now available for selection once again, as is Jai Field.

Field has not featured since the opening game of the season when he suffered a damaging hamstring injury which has kept him out ever since. Meanwhile, Morgan Smithies (ankle), Ethan Havard (hip) and Liam Marshall (failed Head Injury Assessment) are all back in the fold too and make up the five changes to Wigan’s squad from their victory over Leigh.

However, it’s not all positive for the Cherry and Whites as Brad Singleton (three-match) and Oliver Partington (two-match) have been served with bans for Grade C punching offences in that win against the Centurions. Singleton was sent off at the time of the offence after scrapping with Leigh’s Jack Ashworth.

Tommy Leuluai also misses out against the Red Devils as he suffered a hamstring injury against the Leythers, and sadly it was announced earlier this week that Dom Manfredi will retire from the game with immediate effect.

Manfredi wanted to call time at the end of the campaign, but after seeking further advice from medical experts surrounding a long-term knee injury, has been forced to do so earlier than expected.

In the opposition camp, Salford are still feeling the full effects of their recent COVID outbreak with full effect and have 11 absentees with those players all either isolating or injured as confirmed by boss Marshall.

Consequently, the Red Devils will have a heavily-changed squad on show at the DW stadium with eight changes to it from the defeat at Leeds 14 days ago. Amongst those missing are Morgan Escare and Ken Sio, and while some of the replacements are youngsters, the experienced Kev Brown does make a return to the 21-man squad.

Head-to-Head

Overall – unsurprisingly – it is Wigan with the better record when these two clubs have met, and they took the honours in the reverse fixture earlier in this campaign albeit narrowly. Former Red Devils man Jackson Hastings kicked an impressive long-distance drop goal to secure the two points, with Lam’s side winning 16-17.

Salford victories against the Warriors are hard to come by, but one of the few that stands out is the 2019 play-off semi-final. Away from home as huge underdogs, the Red Devils simply blew Wigan away and reigned supreme by a scoreline of 4-28 to reach their first ever Grand Final.

Of course, that trip down the road to Old Trafford didn’t go to plan as Salford fell at the last hurdle to St Helens, but the semi-final victory at Wigan will last long in the memory for all Red Devils’ fans.

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