Arrived Carcassonne this morning 2 degrees by midday in Perpignan probably about 17 deg cool again tonight can see why we're playing in the afternoon

its probably so in the summer they will be able to run the legs of their opponents in the heat in perpignan



Feeling like this is our 1st real big test hopefully we will pass it with flying colours, as long as we continue to improve in all departments ill be happy

For those of you that like a little flutter....... (prices from WH - other good bookies (& bad) also available)



Salford to win (+14) - Evens

Salford to win outright - 4/1

Salford HT & FT - 7/1

Winning margin: Salford by 6-10 - 28/1



Will be having a couple of quid on each of these. Although the bookies are rarely wrong I have a sneaky feeling we might just pull it off on Saturday

.



Safe trip to all those jammy gits making the journey

19-man squads for this weekend are;



[uCatalans[/u:

Damien Blanch, Leon Pryce, Thomas Bosc, Scott Dureau, David Ferriol, Rémi Casty, Greg Mounis, Sébastien Raguin, Jean-Philippe Baile, Cyrille Gossard, Daryl Millard, Mickael Simon, Julian Bousquet, Jamal Fakir, Lopini Paea, Jason Baitieri, Vincent Duport, Ben Fisher, Damien Cardace



Missing: Clint Greenshields, Ian Henderson Louis Anderson, Setaimata Sa and Steve Menzies



[uSalford[/u:

Luke Patten,Joel Moon, Sean Gleeson, Adam Neal, Josh Veivers, Daniel Holdsworth, Matty Smith, Lee Jewitt, Vinnie Anderson, Jordan James, Matty Ashurst, Shannan McPherson, Stephen Wild, Chris Nero, Luke Adamson, Gareth Owen, Stuart Howarth, Iefeta Palea'aesina, Ryan Boyle



Missing: Jodie Broughton, Danny Williams, Wayne Godwin, Ashley Gibson, Ben Gledhill

Actually, scrap my last post! Having looked at the injuries to our backline I now fear the worst. How will we line up? Moon & Gleeson on the wings, with Nero & Adamson in the centres?

1. Patten

2. Gleeson

3. Wild

4. Moon

5. Nero

6. Holdsworth

7. Smith

8. Jewitt

9. Howarth

10. McPhearson

11. Adamson

12. Ashurst

13. Anderson



14. Owen

15. James

16. Boyle

17. Feka



Very weak in the backs. Missing all our wingers could be massive, I don't know whether its worth putting Josh Veivers on the bench just to cover the backs? Moon would be wasted on the wing IMO so I'd go with the same 3 quater line as finished the game against London.

Both Nero & Gleeson got a couple each last week so I don't see it as being that weak, especially not with Patten & Moon in there if they carry last weeks form with them but I do see what you mean about missing our 3 first choice wingers. They are also missing key players, in key areas ie Henderson at hooker, Greenshields FB, Sa in the centres. I actually quite fancy us getting a result after being less than confident at the beginning of the week. Come on you REDS!!!!!!!

And the old feller, Sir Steve Menzies Campbell.

I wouldn't be suprised to see Anderson playing centre with Gleeson on the wing. I'm sure he's played at centre in his Saint's days.



Were obviously missing a lot of speed outwide in Broughton & Williams but it does look a bit stronger defensively - Nero was playing second row last season!



I just hope we can play as we have been and get a few breaks of the ball to give us a chance.

On a side note though...... It's amazing how many injuries every team has suffered so far this season. I don't think anyone's escaped it so far!

Anyone recall the last game at the Willows and the damage Menzies did to us? Quite a relief he's out - pretty much the same for Sa & Greenshields too - whilst we'll clearly miss Williams & Broughton I think Nero & Gleeson did a pretty good job for us



Allez les Diables Rouges

We'll miss Williams and Broughton's strong running from dummy half to get us on the front foot in the first couple of tackles brining it away from our line. We struggle there enough as it is. Gleeson and Nero will do a decent job for us but they haven't got the speed from standing or the finishing ability of them two and Gibson. We'll certainly miss them more than we did against London.



We'll be less creative with Wild or Anderson at centre and I still worry about the way Vinnie switches off in defence (although he has a decent off load which will be good for Gleeson if he plays there)



That said we've probably had worse first choice 3/4 lines in the past than this patched up one and Holdsworth and Patten in particular have been timing their runs into the centre position so well that it won't be the problem it could have been.



I thought one of the U20s might be asked to step up - a few of them have been scoring tries for fun. Maybe they're not quite ready yet