Salford Red Devils ran in three tries in a mesmerising five-minute spell early in the second half to sweep to an impressive 38-8 victory over Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.
The Red Devils led only 10-4 at half-time before Mark Flanagan, Ryan Lannon – with his second touchdown – and Robert Lui went over in quick succession to send the Wildcats crashing to only their second First Utility Super League defeat in nine matches.
Salford ran in seven tries in all with others from Niall Evalds, George Griffin and Junior Sau as Ian Watson’s men made it back-to-back wins.
Wakefield had skipper Danny Kirmond and Ben Jones-Bishop sin-binned in the first half with Jacob Miller placed on report in the second period for a tackle on Gareth O’Brien, who was forced off for treatment.
The Wildcats could only reply with tries from Anthony Tupou and ex-Salford winger Ben Jones-Bishop.
Salford coach Watson has his sights set on the top eight after the Red Devils moved to within two points of Widnes Vikings.
“Our aim is a top-eight place with or without the six points that have been deducted,” he said.
“This was a good result and great to back up from last week.
“We are a good and confident group and the boys are believing in their defence. We made too many errors with the ball in the first half but our middles had a point to prove after losing at Wakefield and did their job well.
“Gareth O’Brien and Michael Dobson were very good for us in the halves and Ryan Lannon gets into spaces you would not expect. He scares the big lads with his quick feet and we want him to back his ability with performances like that.”
Wakefield coach Chris Chester admitted the writing was on the wall in the early stages.
“I could sense after five or 10 minutes we seemed really flat,” he said.
“The sin bins killed us but I have no issues with the referee – it was a trip by Kirmo. Most of the penalties were justified and I did not have a problem at all with the referee’s performance.
“We were a long way off where we have been recently and Salford deserved their victory.
“They out-enthused us and we came up short. We took too many shortcuts. Now we have to dust ourselves down and go again on Thursday against Hull KR.”