Bradford Bulls show character to extinguish Salford fire

It was difficult to put a price on this victory for Francis Cummins and his players last night.

When you have lost three Super League games on the trot and been dumped out of the Challenge Cup by London Broncos, you simply have to win at Salford.

The Bulls did that ultimately with something to spare, seeing off a feisty City Reds side who had clearly been fired up for this one by Brian Noble.

A journey from hell which saw the Bulls team bus arrive at the City of Salford Stadium only 30 minutes before the scheduled kick-off time was hardly ideal preparation.

And the City Reds were up for this one all right, peppering stand-in full back Jarrod Sammut with a steady stream of early kicks.

Sammut and his team refused to buckle.

The diminutive Aussie then produced a brilliant piece of skill to break from deep inside his own half and usher Luke Gale clear from the halfway line.

Gale’s 19th-minute opener was pure theatre and a reminder of rugby league’s ability to lift the spirits.

Goodness knows those Bulls fans housed behind the posts under which Gale dived needed a tonic after braving the traffic to follow their team.

Salford came back strongly and drew level with a try from Ryan McGoldrick but a superb brace from Matty Blythe put the visitors 18-7 up at the break.

They never looked back as second-half scores from Matt Diskin and Adrian Purtell sealed the points.

It was a highly welcome and much-needed response to the recent sequence of losses and reignited the Bulls’ play-off hopes at the same time.

There was also a pleasing debut off the bench for on-loan Huddersfield forward Jacob Fairbank, nephew of legendary Bradford Northern prop Karl Fairbank.

Cummins was missing Brett Kearney (groin) and Adam Sidlow (shoulder) after they picked up injuries in last weekend’s defeat at the Twickenham Stoop.

Michael Platt earned a recall on the left flank and Blythe was pushed into the second row alongside Elliott Whitehead.

Jamie Langley was also back after a three-match injury absence to start in the front row on his 250th appearance for the club.

The Bulls’ longest-serving player made his debut under Noble during a win against Wakefield in 2002 and has been an outstanding servant to the club.

The kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes after traffic chaos in West Yorkshire delayed the arrival of the Bulls team.

A lorry driver was airlifted to hospital after a crash between his vehicle and a tanker forced the closure of the M62 motorway for much of yesterday afternoon.

West Yorkshire Fire Service said a large goods vehicle had run into the back of a chemical tanker and there was no denying it was a major disruption to the men from Odsal.

Match commissioner Ian Ollerton was asked about the delayed kick-off time and joked that Noble would want to bring it forward by 15 minutes rather than delay it.

There was no denying that Noble would have loved to beat his home-town club. The 52-year-old famously guided Bradford to five successive Grand Finals, winning three of them.

Noble was handed an 18-month contract by the City Reds’ multi-millionaire owner Marwan Koukash on April 15.

Koukash, who rescued the club from the brink of administration when he completed his takeover at the end of January, has pledged to utilise the full £1.8million salary cap in 2014 and even led calls for it to be increased.

But there will be no quick fix for a club who lie bottom of the Super League table and were thrashed by Warrington in the Tetley’s Challenge Cup last weekend.

His tactics in the opening stages were clear last night as scrum half Theo Fages targeted Sammut with a series of probing kicks.

But as Heath L’Estrange led by example with some meticulous dummy running, the Bulls held firm and Sammut produced a brilliant piece of skill to help his team into a 19th-minute lead.

Collecting possession on his own ten-metre line from a pass from Elliot Kear, Sammut showed remarkable speed and agility to weave past a clutch of Salford defenders and break to halfway.

He then showed intelligence to spot Gale in support and the England Knights man had the pace to sprint clear and dive under the posts for a brilliant counter-attacking try.

Sammut added the extras but Salford continued to probe and hit back 11 minutes later when McGoldrick touched down from close range after an intense period of home pressure.

McGoldrick, a player the Bulls could have signed during the off-season, then added a drop-goal to further reward the home side.

But Bradford struck in clinical fashion shortly before the break as Blythe claimed centre stage with a superb brace.

A teasing short grubber kick from Danny Addy, who performed well in the halves alongside Gale, was allowed to bounce by the Salford defence and Blythe stretched out an arm to ground the ball.

Sammut’s conversion made it 12-7 before Blythe grabbed his second in exhilarating fashion.

Collecting possession on Salford’s ten-metre line, Blythe showed some delightful footwork to weave past a clutch of statuesque Salford defenders to slalom over the line.

The Bulls fans behind the posts were beside themselves with joy and Sammut’s conversion sent the visitors in at the break with a commanding, if not quite totally convincing, 18-7 lead.

Salford’s cause after the restart was not helped by the loss of former Bulls centre Chris Nero to a nasty-looking injury.

He lay prone on the turf for eight minutes before being carried off on a stretcher.

Crucially, Bradford got the first try of the second half when Diskin showed all of his experience to scoot over from acting half in the 59th minute. Sammut’s conversion went in off a post and the Bulls grabbed a fifth try with four minutes remaining.

Gale attacked the line at pace and found the ever-willing Sammut, whose neat pass sent Purtell crashing over the line in the right corner.

Sammut missed the touchline conversion. It did not matter.

The Bulls’ season was back up and running.

Attendance: 5,106