Salford City Reds demolish Whitehaven in Challenge Cup as starman Sneyd shines

By Ben Burrows

Salford City Reds cruised into the next round of the Challenge Cup with a convincing 58-18 win over Whitehaven yesterday.

The Reds, looking to bounce back from poor recent league form, scored ten tries as they were rarely troubled by the Cumbrians.

Standoff Marc Sneyd was Whitehaven’s chief tormentor; the 21-year-old notched nine out of his ten conversion attempts as well as grabbing two tries of his own.

The result was almost never in doubt after former-finalist Chris Nero crossed as early as the eighth minute.

Sneyd then scored the first of his two tries shortly after before centre Joel Moon crossed for his first of the afternoon.

Standoff Sneyd had an excellent all-round game and grabbed his second shortly before back row Luke Adamson followed him in under the posts for a rare score.

Winger Danny Williams notched another shortly before the halftime hooter to make the score 34-6 at the break.

There was no let up for the hosts after the interval either as fullback Josh Veivers and halfback Matty Smith both crossed within two minutes of each other.

Australian Moon has been a revelation so far this season and has definitely confirmed himself as a real fan favourite.

The former New Zealand Warrior helped himself to his second of the day before workhorse forward Matty Ashurst rounded off the win with a neatly taken tenth.

Head coach Phil Veivers was rewarded for fielding a strong line-up and will hope his side can take the confidence from this result into their next league encounter – a distinctly winnable game against Wakefield Trinity Wildcats on Saturday.

For more on this story and many others, follow Mancunian Matters on Twitter and Facebook.