BY JOHN DAVIDSON
The scoreboard was never going to really matter.
The first-ever game of Salford RLFC, the phoenix club that has arisen from the ashes of the collapsed Salford Red Devils, came on a cold January evening in Eccles.
Five weeks ago the Super League Red Devils went under thanks to a colossal amount of debt and lies. It was a house of cards that finally fell over in early December. There were fears that the club might never return. But former players Ryan Brierley and Mason Caton-Brown, combined with a handful of local businessmen, bidded and won the license back to reform the club in the Championship.
Salford RLFC have to start at the bottom and rebuild from scratch, and this is exactly what happened in M30. Oldham RLFC turned up, cashed up and filled with ex-Super League clubs, and posted a 44-0 victory.
It was only ever going to be this way.
The new Salford only had a handful of training sessions before their opener, and could only start training on January 5. Their pre-season was non-existent. The club is also on a tiny budget, with no funding from the RFL, probably an eighth or less than what Oldham’s salary cap is.
Salford were still recruiting up until kick-off and their XVII featured a raft of young, inexperienced academy players and rookies. Most are so unknown, apart from ex-Warrington, Hull FC, Leigh and Leeds hooker Brad Dwyer, they don’t even have Wikipedia pages.
No matter.
The evening was about much more than just the 80 minutes on the pitch. It was a celebration of Salford’s survival, a coming together of the local community, a party that the club still exists.
Sporting clubs are more than the players and coaches, they can be cornerstones of the towns they operate in and symbols of pride, hope and community. This has been evident no more recently than at Salford, who have slipped from Super League contenders to almost complete oblivion.
The last game at this stadium was marred by angry protests, pitch invasions, and uncaring owners inciting supporters from their box. It was bleak in the extreme. This time the mood was positive, uplifting and celebratory.
It took just three minutes and 43 seconds for Oldham to grab its first try. Eighteen more minutes for the score to hit 16-0. Then on 32 minutes the game was stopped when a male Oldham collapsed in the stands because of a cardiac arrest.
Medical staff ran to tend to him, and a stadium watched on in near silence. The game was paused for more than 20 minutes, until the fan was carried out of the ground and on to the hospital, after showing some positive signs of life, thankfully.
There is never a dull moment in these parts.
The game resumed and Salford seemed energised and empowered by their rest. They built some field pressure and went close to bagging a try. At half-time it remained 16-0 to the Roughyeds.
After the break, Salford continued to battle and scrap. Their committment anfd effort could not be questioned. For a new team without many leaders, they have some team spirit. Some of Oldham’s players got frustrated that they couldn’t break their opponents down as easily as many anticipated.
Then in the 53rd minute Tom Nisbet ducked past a few tackles, put Keiran Dixon into space and the fullback found Riley Dean for the long-range try. 22-0. More tries flowed to Oldham – one to ex-Salford winger Jake Bibby in the corner, another to Cole Geyer on debut, another to Elliot Farnworth, the final meat pie to ex-Salford forward Ryan Lannon – and at full-time it had reached 44-0.
But the scoreboard was never really going to matter.
The Salford fans sang and cheered, roared and yelled, just pleased they still had a team to watch. Thankful they have a side to support. Featherstone fans are not so lucky.
It will be a long, hard season for the club. There are no illusions about that. There will be many defeats, many big scorelines to swallow, and rare moments of victory or success. Everyone at Salford knows this. Nothing comes easy in rugby league, and rival clubs will exploit any weakness.
But from little things, big things can grow. The club has sold around 1500 season tickets, despite its late start, and a crowd of something between 3000 to 4000 turned up tonight. There are green shoots. The fire still burns.
The scoreboard will matter again one day. Wins will be chased, losses dissected, and standards raised. But on this wintry night in Eccles, none of that mattered. Salford still exists. The club is alive.
And that, after everything, was victory enough.