Salford Red Devils survive late scare to take a dramatic 16-14 victory against the Catalan Dragons

Salford Red Devils held on for a dramatic 16-14 win against Catalans Dragons to draw level with the French side and cement their position in the Super League play-offs.

Paul Rowley’s side, who defied all odds to go within 80 minutes of last year’s grand final, are firmly in the top six again as this year’s competition approaches the halfway stage.

They recorded their sixth win in 10 games with a win against a Catalans who came desperately close to forcing a golden point extra time, after Adam Keighran’s effort in the last minute of the game cut Salford’s lead to just two points.

However, Keighran missed the conversion that would have leveled the scores, allowing Salford to claim the two match points their performance over the 80 minutes certainly deserved.

The hosts broke the stalemate after 10 minutes when King Vuniyayawa went down from close range, allowing Marc Sneyd to make a simple conversion from the front to make it 6-0.

Sneyd then extended that lead further with a penalty, but he dropped the resulting kick-off to give the Catalans a chance to score their first points of the afternoon.

They duly obliged when a set move straight from the scrum gave England winger Tom Johnstone enough room to finish in the corner to claim his 11th try of the season.

However, Keighran was off target with the conversion meaning the Catalans were still four down before the hosts landed a telling blow a minute before the break.

Salford reacted quickest to a tap restart and Joe Burgess broke from deep to race 80 yards landing under the posts despite a commendable chase to Johnstone’s line. Sneyd converted to make it 14–4, before adding another penalty shortly after the restart to create a 12-point lead.

Adam Keighran missed a late conversion that would have leveled the scores late in the game

However, three minutes later, Arthur Mourgue’s punt found its way to Paul Seguier, who grounded out before Keighran converted and cut the Red Devils’ lead to just six going into the final quarter.

The Catalans had been visibly off-color for much of the match up to that point, but Keighran’s effort turned the momentum in their favor and they had chance after chance in the dying minutes to score the try that might have set the scores would equalize.

And just as it looked like Salford would stop them with a spirited defence, Keighran broke the line with less than a minute left on the clock – but pushed his conversion wide much to the delight of the Salford supporters.