The blue and golds were given a fright in this one as the home side made light of their lowly league position.
Trailing 14-12 at the break the Beverley recovered in the second half which was for the most part played in a torrential downpour.
Director of Rugby, Pat Howdle commented;
“They had me worried at half-time, we seemed to be sulking and feeling a bit sorry for ourselves. But we do not have a divine right to just beat everybody and I asked for us to show some grit and we got a response.’”
A spirited Salford outfit had the better of the opening exchanges with the penalty count weighing in their favour. They took the lead after ten minutes with a Paul Morgan penalty.
Beverley’s reply was swift as man of the match Jack Howdle, who led superbly by example all afternoon broke from deep in his own 20. Howdle unleashed the perfect pass to send Sam Brown sprinting away to score and Poskitt to convert.
This failed to settle Beverley and the Roosters scored again through Charlie Dink converted by Morgan to lead 8-6. Beverley hit back when Lewis Poskitt’s speculative kick down-field was regathered by Lewis Miller who returned a pass to Poskitt. Poskitt dummied and sidestepped his way to the line and add the extras.
As the interval approached a chip ahead by the hosts failed to be dealt with and Tom Pratt regathered to score and for Morgan to improve and give them a half-time lead. Beverley’s frustration continued to show as they conceded more penalties early in the second half. Morgan extended Salford’s lead with one such penalty.
However shortly after, Jack Howdle was on hand to send Sam Coleman sprinting away to score and level things up. Then Jack Humphries gave Beverley the lead converted by Poskitt.
Midway through the second half,the lead was then extended with a piece of sheer class. Steve Connolly sniffed a chance down the blind side and scooted away to slip a sublime pass and send Sam Coleman over for his second. Poskitt converted and the restart kick went down the throat of Jack Howdle who rampaged 60 meters to score a try too wide out to be improved.
Sam Taher did reply for the home side converted by Morgan to peg the scores back to 32-22 but this was a brief respite. Jack Howdle and Alex Starling added further tries in the closing stages one of which was converted by Steve Connolly.
This secured an eleventh win from eleven starts and with rivals Clock Face and Barrow Island both slipping up it sees Beverley go six points clear at the top of Division 3.
Final Score : Salford City Roosters 22 Beverley ARLC 42
Reported by Nick Robinson
