Seven-try Leigh avoid early scare to thump Salford

Tesi Niu scores Leigh Leopards' first try against Salford Red Devils

Betfred Super League

Leigh (12) 38

Tries: Niu, O'Neill, Charnley (2), Davis, Hodgson, Towse Goals: McNamara 5

Salford (6) 6

Tries: Mellor Goal: Milnes

Leigh Leopards returned to winning ways in Super League to keep their top-two hopes alive but had to fight hard to break down a spirited Salford Red Devils.

Adrian Lam's outfit have looked a pale shadow of their usual selves in recent weeks, slumping to successive defeats against Leeds Rhinos and Hull FC just when they needed to be gathering momentum.

But two points gained from an ultimately comfortable 38-6 win against crisis club Salford put them a point behind second-placed St Helens with four rounds of the regular season to go.

If the visit of Paul Rowley's threadbare squad looked the perfect opportunity for Leigh to reassert their play-off credentials, then a first half during which Salford confounded pre-game odds of 100-1 threatened an upset of sorts.

The scores were level on 38 minutes after Joe Mellor had gone over early for the visitors and Tesi Niu had levelled matters, only for Ethan O'Neill to collect a Lachlan Lam kick and touch down to put Leigh 12-6 up at the break.

But in a second half in which Salford eventually wilted under pressure, Leigh ran in five more tries to put a gloss on the scoreline.

Rowley had dealt in his usual dignified manner with what he described as "another challenging week" which started with a forfeited match against Wakefield Trinity and ended with the exit of another two players in Matty Foster and Ethan Regan.

So the smile on his face in the stands when on 18 minutes his side were ahead through Mellor was entirely justified.

And the lead was still there with two minutes remaining in the first half of a match in which his bunch of loanees and reserves had been expected to be buried at that stage.

However, O'Neill's try to give Leigh the lead before the break rather took away the gloss, but the first 40 had been a brilliant display from his team with Wakefield Trinity loan-signing Neil Tchamambe the standout performer in a superb team effort.

The second half went back to script with Leigh taking the game by the scruff of the neck and running in five unanswered tries – Josh Charnley with two, Matt Davis, Bailey Hodgson and AJ Towse punishing tired Salford bodies.

The Red Devils remain anchored to the bottom with two wins all season and the club still in a precarious position, but their fans stayed to salute Rowley and his players long after the final whistle, suggesting that hope remains.

Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam speaking to BBC Radio Merseyside:

"We are still in the hunt and what we are in control of are the next four performances. We have three of those four games at home and Warrington away. There is no reason why we can't win all four of those.

"If we do that there is a chance statistically of finishing second. We are right where we want to be.

"I am confident we can beat anyone, but we have got to stay true to our standards and our skill. We want to embrace it and thrive from it. Not just survive. The way we have been playing we are surviving, but we need to thrive."

"It was tough to watch, especially in the first half, but when you make that many changes it is going to be clunky at times.

"We had six new faces and 10 positional changes, so that is a big disruption, but the week was focused on what was best for us given what we have moving forward."

Salford head coach Paul Rowley speaking to BBC Radio Manchester:

"There is new players in every week. Rowan Milnes was the one we met on the bus coming in. But the new lads have a lot of pride in their own performance and together they find some common ground with the rest of the boys.

"We understand they are not going to be coming in and kissing the badge and pledging their allegiance to Salford for the rest of their life and having a tattoo, but we ask for some commitment and connectivity.

"We try to stay away too much from structures and shape but tell them to hold themselves in high regard and to account. I guess it is a reflection of rugby league players in general that they do.

"We got beat by a very good team but the effort was commendable from our boys. We will continue to look for positives and we will find them. We are here to be fulfilled and compete, and for half a game we got that."

Leigh: Hodgson; Brand, Niu, McIntosh, Charnley; McNamara, Lam; Hughes, Davis, Mulhern, Badrock, O'Neill, Liu.

Interchanges: Pene, Tuitavake, Towse, Dwyer.

Salford: Murphy; Connell, Gorman, Darbyshire, Tchamambe; Milnes, Mellor; Lewis, Yates, Sangare, Ruan, Russell, Wilson.

Interchanges: Glover, Chan, Warren, Waine.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths.