The Salford Red Devils came up short against local rivals Leigh Centurions in a frantic game at Leigh Sports Village.
The Red Devils came into the game looking to build on their positive performance against Huddersfield Giants. Ian Watson made just one change to the side that beat the Giants 34-12, with Niall Evalds replacing the injured Justin Carney.
The game started off at lightning pace, with Mason Caton-Brown almost going over in the corner for Salford early on, but it would be Leigh that opened the scoring through Reni Matau.
Minutes later and Leigh doubled their lead, Corey Patterson scoring under the posts pushing the hosts out to a 12-0 lead.
Salford struck back in sensational style, Mason Caton-Brown found a gap in the Leythers defence and raced 60 metres to score under the sticks.
Leigh restored their advantage on the 22nd minute as McNally capitalised on a luck deflection following a kick though to score.
With the game at break neck speed, Salford Struck back again, Niall Evalds marking his return to the side with a try in the corner. Leigh knocked a simply penalty over before half time to put the score to 10-20 at the interval.
Salford started well in the second half, and were almost right back in the game, with only the video referee denying Ben Murdoch-Masila.
Salford would see three more attempts referred to the video referee, ultimately to be disappointed on each occasions.
Salford did eventually score in the 55th minute with Rob Lui finishing off a clever move to go over under the posts to bring Salford back to within four points.
With the game reaching boiling point, Leigh scored two quick trys and kicked a penalty to stretch their lead to 16-32 with just seven minutes left of the clock.
With clock against them Salford staged something of a fight back with Murdoch-Masila and Caton-Brown crossing to make the score 26-32, but Leigh would hold to claim the victory.
The win means Salford remain on two points in the Super 8 Qualifiers, and the team will need to put in a much improved performance against Hull KR on Friday night.
Salford Red Devils Squad: O’Brien, Evalds, Sa’u, J.Griffin, Caton-Brown, Dobson, Lui, Kopczak, G.Griffin, Mateo, Murdoch-Masila, Flanagan, Krasniqi, Kenny, Burgess, Hauraki.
