Super League: Salford Red Devils 16-26 Hull KR - Visitors hold on for second win of season

Mikey Lewis scored a try in either half and teed up another score to earn Rovers a narrow win

Hull Kingston Rovers held off a fierce Salford comeback to earn their second Super League victory of the season.

Tries from Elliot Minchella, Mathew Storton and Mikey Lewis and three Jordan Abdull goals gave dominant Rovers an 18-0 half-time lead

Ken Sio and Shane Wright crossed before Marc Sneyd's interception and sprint put Joe Burgess in as Salford responded with 16 unanswered points.

But a second score from Lewis and a two more Abdull goals sealed a 26-18 win.

A below-par first-half display ultimately consigned Salford to a third straight Super League defeat as enterprising Rovers took advantage of lacklustre defence, particularly in midfield.

Minchella reacted quickest to full-back Ryan Brierley's in-goal spill to reward the Robins' good early work before Albert Vete sucked four men into the tackle, creating defensive holes in the following play for Lewis to send Storton in.

Another Brierley drop from Abdull's bomb led to Ryan Lannon's sin-binning for Salford's repeated goalline infringements, and soon after Lewis chased down his own chip through to cap a perfect first half.

The hosts stormed back after the break, as former Robins winger Sio coasted in from a scrum after Will Dagger lost the ball in the tackle, and Sneyd's clever grubber kick gave Wright his first Super League try.

And with 19 minutes left, the hosts cut the deficit to two points when Sneyd's interception and 70-yard sprint turned defence into attack and sent Burgess in unopposed.

But all of their momentum was sapped when the hapless Brierley waited to meet Abdull's high kick, allowing Frankie Halton to pinch the ball and feed Lewis.

A penalty on the hooter completed a perfect night and 10-point haul for Abdull as Rovers made it five wins in their last six meetings with the Red Devils.

A second win in three matches lifts Rovers up to seventh, a place above Salford.

Salford Red Devils coach Paul Rowley:

"It was a poor performance. I thought our appetite to defend from the start was poor. We got rolled too easily in that first half. We had harsh words at half-time but you can't win games if you're not willing to defend.

"We didn't have a great deal of ball but we did score when we had it, which was encouraging.

"As a group we are not defending well enough. Everyone said before the start of the season that we were easy beats and we've done nothing so far to change those opinions.

"Our contact is just not good enough. We tried to rescue a bad situation tonight, but if we'd worked hard in the first place, we wouldn't have had to do that."

Hull KR head coach Tony Smith told BBC Radio Humberside:

"We showed some patience and scored some good points towards the back end of the first half. Sometimes it's about building games and being a little conservative in some aspects of our play and I thought we did that well tonight.

"The second half got a little ugly for us at times. We went away from some of the stuff we were doing in the first half and helped the opposition get back in the game.

"A little more control would have been good in that second half, but we hung in there and came home strong.

"We're not patting ourselves on the back and saying, 'We're all that,' yet, we keep working on aspects of our game, but we were much smarter in how we built things up tonight."

Salford: Brierley; Sio, Cross, Lafai, Burgess; Croft, Sneyd; Akauola, Ackers, Vuniyayawa, Wright, Greenwood, Addy.

Interchanges: Taylor, Lannon, Ormondroyd, Gerrard.

Sin-bin: Lannon (35)

Hull KR: Dagger; Wood, Keinhorst, Kenny-Dowall, Hall; Lewis, Abdull; Garratt, Parcell, King, Halton, Linnett, Minchella.

Interchanges: Vete, Hadley, Storton, Litten.

Referee: J Smith

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