Salford 30 Saints 20

SALFORD'S favourite musical sons The Smiths penned some pretty perceptive lyrics during the 80s, but the song 'Heaven knows I'm miserable now' could have been written to sum up the mood in the Saints camp after their collapse in form in recent weeks.

From riding on the crest of a wave up to the end of May, the cup winners have suffered a rapid demise, losing four out their last five away games, making a top two finish unlikely.

Sunday's defeat was perhaps even more shocking than the drubbings inflicted on them by Hull and Leeds.

After all, prior to Sunday, struggling Salford had not beaten a side out of the bottom three. And although battling for Super League survival made Reds understandably hungry, that should not be enough to overcome a side of Saints' undoubted calibre.

In mitigation Saints are missing the influential Sean Long and Paul Sculthorpe and suffered a late blow when stomach bug victim Lee Gilmour cried off. And they were further hampered when Jason Hooper was carried off on a stretcher with a facial injury after only 15 minutes.

Although the blistering heat was perhaps something of a leveller, there were two crucial differences between the sides - Salford had a greater enthusiasm and they also had an ingenious pair of half backs in Gavin Clinch and Kevin McGuinness, who could probe for the gaps and push their side around the park with a neatly executed kicking game.

Saints on the other hand gave a lethargic display and they did not seem to know what game plan they were supposed to be playing to at times.

Once again it was a case of too many passes hitting the deck early on in the set, with that poor attacking play compounded by a sloppy defensive display.

Midway through the first half the Reds had racked up an 18-0 lead care of tries by England A hooker Malcolm Alker, Joel Caine and Stuart Littler.

That third try was an absolute belter, coming from a passage of play that looked as though it was going to yield a score for Saints.

Stand-in skipper Keiron Cunningham's off-load was snapped up by McGuinness who was tracked and caught by the chasing Ade Gardner.

But McGuinness had the awareness to change his direction and release to the rapidly advancing second rower Simon Baldwin, who sent Littler screaming over.

Hooper's injury meant Ian Millward had to throw Micky Higham on at scrum half for his first game since breaking his ankle in April and at times his ring-rustiness understandably showed.

Saints' man for all seasons Paul Wellens took a more central role as the visitors began to get with the pace of the game. A fine break led to the fleet-footed Gardner racing in at the corner on 26 minutes - which concluded the first half scoring.

Saints seemed to start the second half with a greater degree of purpose and urgency. Fine play from Cunningham and Darren Albert sent Gardner haring in for his second try after barely a minute of the second half.

But with Saints edging back into it, Jon Wilkin's clearance kick was charged down and although Wellens was able to cover back and stop the Salford breakaway, there was little any of them could do to stop the rampaging heavyweight Neil Baynes from crashing over.

It was a sickener for Saints, but Wellens rolled his sleeves up and was denied a try after looking to get the ball down on the line, only for the in goal touch judge to rule that he was short.

Two tries in two minutes then brought Saints to within two points of their hosts with Albert racing the full length to touch down and Higham collecting Willie Talau's inside ball to go over.

The wind carried Wellens potentially equalising conversion just wide - but it did not matter as Chris Charles slotted a penalty and Alker grabbed his second try.

Salford: Fitzpatrick; Caine, Littler, Johnson, Stewart; McGuinness, Clinch; Baynes, Alker, Rutgerson, Coley, Shipway, Charles. Subs: Jonkers, Haggerty, Baldwin, Brocklehurst

Saints: Albert; Gardner, Bennett, Talau, Hardman; Hooper, Roby; Fozzard, Cunningham, Edmondson, Stankevitch, Joynt, Wellens. Subs: Wilkin, Mason, Higham, Feaunati

Att: 4897

Ref: RA Smith