Mike Grady, head coach of Salford, said before the match that they’d ‘enjoy the occasion and give it a real go’. And fair to say, they did, up until twenty-five minutes as in a game where Salford fought early on, it turned out to be a predictable outcome as Hull FC advance to the fourth round of the Challenge Cup.
An 11 try game for Hull FC, was enough for them to hold their dominance over the Championship side, as a first career hat trick for Davy Litten will surely be celebrated in that Hull FC camp ready for their first game against Bradford Bulls next week.
For Salford, it was a just a game too far, and they were handed an early blow as on the first play of the game, a collision from Owen Haldenby onto Jed Cartwright, ruled both players out of the game, with Hull FC head coach John Cartwright, father of Jed saying that he “wasn’t in a good way” and went to hospital.
However, one minute later. Hull managed to score their first try of the game, with Yousuf Aydin managing to score from a blocked Toby Hughes kick that reached the tryline, with Aydin managing to touch the ball inside the tryline for the try.
Hull then scored again five minutes later after Davy Little managed to score his first out of three tries, from Salford’s right-hand side which Salford could not deal with.
Salford did well managing to hold on for twenty minutes after struggling in the first couple of minutes, until Amir Bourouh, ex Salford player, from a Sam Lisone run, managed to score the next try, from a two-yard dash into the tryline for Hull FC to make this a statement victory, and more points to follow.
Harvey Barron scored from an almost identical try that Salford’s defence could not get to, despite holding them in for so long in the game. 22-0 Hull it was at the end of half.
Hull FC dominant in Second Half
The second half was more of a tiring one from the Salford squad, as seven tries from Hull FC, including tries from Davy Little, Joe Batchelor, Cade Cust and Jake Arthur, was enough to beat the Championship side quite emphatically at the end of the game.
For Salford, their main aim was to just give a Super League side a game, and considering they were only 12 down from twenty-five minutes, I think Mike Grady will have a lot of pride in his Salford bunch as they welcome Hunslet in their next match in the Betfred Championship.