Magic Weekend 2016: Salford Red Devils 18-12 Widnes Vikings

Salford gained revenge for their defeat by Widnes at Magic Weekend last year

Salford extended Widnes' losing run to eight Super League games with victory in Saturday's Magic Weekend opener at St James' Park.

Having gone ahead through Daniel Vidot's try, Salford were overhauled by Rhys Hanbury and Chris Bridge scores.

However, they fought back after half-time with Justin Carney's try to close to within two points.

Vidot's second try against a tiring Vikings and a Gareth O'Brien penalty proved enough to snatch the points.

Having been dealt a six-point deduction for breaking salary cap rules, Salford, whose owner Marwan Koukash this week called for the Super League to split from the Rugby Football League, have dropped out of the top eight but their chances of returning there have been boosted by this result.

Widnes looked to have given their large travelling contingent another happy Tyneside away day in their Sir Bobby Robson charity shirts on half-back Kevin Brown's return but they faded against Salford's powerful pack late on.

It might have been different had video referee Phil Bentham awarded some first-half Vikings tries but the same could be said of Salford in the second period.

Widnes' loss of form will be a concern to coach Denis Betts, with Salford and Hull KR now four and three points behind them respectively in the race for the final Super Eights spot.

Salford coach Ian Watson: "It's a good win for us. It's important we got back on the horse. We need to keep reclaiming those points back.

"In the first half I thought we made ourselves do a lot of defending but there is a bit of a hill out there and that was a factor.

"I was always confident we would come through the other side if we were in the game at half-time. We bombed a lot of opportunities, we should have been more comfortable."

Widnes head coach Denis Betts: "It's another game where we were pretty close but not close enough.

"I keep trying to reinforce some positives out of this. We're a decent group. The only people who can turn it around are us and there's enough of the season left for us to get on little bit of a roll.

"We've just got to try and find a win from somewhere."

Salford: O'Brien, Carney, Sa'u, Bibby, Vidot, Lui, Dobson, Kopczak, Tomkins, G. Griffin, Murdoch-Masila, Jones, Flanagan.

Replacements: Hauraki, A. Walne, Joseph, Lannon.

Widnes: Hanbury, Thompson, Runciman, Bridge, Marsh, Mellor, Brown, O'Carroll, White, Dudson, Houston, Dean, Cahill.

Replacements: Heremaia, Manuokafoa, Whitley, Leuluai.

Referee: James Child (RFL)