Coaches Update

As of 4pm the coaches to Sheffield have sold out – we are currently looking into whether we can source further coaches, but it isn’t looking too good at this stage.

We will update the blog as soon as we have any further information. We would like to apologise for any disappointment, but we have been taken by surprise by the high level of demand for travel to this fixture.

FURTHER UPDATE

We have been unable to source any additional travel, so unfortunately (for those not booked on yet) supporter travel to Sheffield is now officially SOLD OUT.

Memorial Garden to Honour Past Fans

Salford City Reds today announced plans to designate an area of the new City of Salford Stadium as a Memorial Garden, to mark the passing of the fans that have had their ashes spread on the pitch at The Willows over the past century.

Hundreds of families have said a final goodbye to their loved ones on the famous old halfway line and the Reds feel it is fitting that this is marked in a special way when they move to their new home at the start of 2010.

Plans for a garden area set aside from the main thoroughfare are being discussed and it is envisaged that it will be a peaceful, benched area where fans can sit in reflection.

The garden will be grown from the soil removed from The Willows and this is seen as the correct way to remember those who have had their ashes spread there.

Reds’ Chief Executive David Tarry said: “Salford has been a very family-orientated club for a long time and it is important that we take special notice of the loss of friends, family and fans that devoted their lives to following the club.

“By using the soil from The Willows we believe we will be taking them all with us and paying our respects to families who saw us as important enough in their loved ones lives to say their farewells on our playing field. We will be leaving nobody behind when we move.”

The Memorial Garden at the City of Salford Stadium will be an important location at the new site and one where future ashes may be spread and the Reds will be inviting fans to suggest how the club can best mark the area, be it with a floral tribute, a stone, a statue or any other fitting memorial.

Mediawatch

Interesting piece in the Guardian today regarding the City of Salford Stadium and licencing process, with an interview with Reds CEO David Tarry – worth a look.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/apr/28/rugbyleague.superleague

As ever, leave your thoughts (if you have any) in the comments section. We can see this is already being vigorously debated on various fans forums

Official coaches to Sheffield

Due to significant demand for an easy way to get to this trickily timed fixture next Friday night the club is providing affordable coach travel to the Don Valley Stadium.

Places are available now for the bargain price of ten pounds, with coaches leaving The Willows at 5.15pm for an 8 o’clock kick off – this should arrive in time despite the Friday night traffic. We have attempted to make the leaving time as late as we can comfortably allow it to be to give everyone chance to get there from work, but are concerned that departure any later than 5.15pm leaves the possibility of late arrival, so the coaches will not be hanging around past that time – it is your responsibility to make sure you are there before they leave.

Places are allocated on a first come, first served basis and cannot be held in lieu of payment on the day – call the shop on 0161 736 6564 or visit personally to book your space.

One final reminder – strictly no alcohol is allowed on the coaches. Anyone behaving less than well will be ejected from the coach and left to find their own way home. There will be children on the coaches so bad language will not be tolerated.

I’m sure you will all be pleased to know that the coaches will be stewarded on this occasion by the one and only Shirley Bradshaw of Forever Reds chairperson fame, and Shirley doesn’t stand for any messing

It should be a good trip – Sheffield away is usually a good one and hopefully all Reds should arrive back home safe and happy with another three points in the bag.

Academy Match Report – Reds vs Leeds Rhinos

Report by Frank Grundy

The game took eighteen minutes to kick into life, with neither side able to string together enough passes to score. From a short grubber kick over the line, Reds number 5 Eddie Vaughan touched down, with stand off half Mark Sneyed converting the try.

From the restart the Reds knocked on and the Leeds winger capitalised to dive over in the corner. A missed conversion made the score 6-4 to the Reds after 21 minutes. This was the cue for the Reds to go on a try scoring binge, started by Luke Ambler – who was having a great game – when he offloaded to sub Ben Wood who used his mountainous physique to great effect to crash over.

Only ten minutes later, winger Eddie Vaughan touched down for his second try, with a great conversion from Sneyed making the score 16-4. The Reds weren’t done yet, and it wasn’t long before the Reds number 14 completely hoodwinked the Rhinos defence for yet another try, again well converted. By now the Reds were in dreamland – 22-4 up against the highly thought of Leeds outfit, and well deserving such a lead.

The Rhinos rallied briefly with tries on 63 and 64 minutes to make the score 22-12, but eight minutes from the end great passing from Reds number 7 Anthony Griffiths and Eddie Vaughan put Max Wiper through for a classy but unconverted try, giving us a final score of Reds 26 – 12 Rhinos.

This was a great performance by the Reds and beating an always strong Rhinos side is not something that happens by fluke. Man of the match Luke Ambler played for most of the match but was pushed hard for the award by great performances from Jason Walton, Ben Wood and Marlon Alker.

There is some real talent in the Reds junior ranks and they deserve as much support from the Reds fans as possible. With these lads and Alan Hunte in charge, the future of the Reds looks very rosey indeed!

24/04/08: Reds 36-10 Whitehaven (NL1)

Salford City Reds 36-10 Whitehaven RLFC

The Willows, Salford

Thursday 24 April 2008, 7.30pm

National League 1 – Round 5

Match Report courtesy of our partner Manchester Evening News.
Click logo for more local news.

by Neil Barker

REDS fans watched the Richard Myler show in front of the TV cameras last night.

Salford’s talented teenage scrum-half scored a fine hat-trick of tries and further enhanced his reputation for the interested audience.

Hull have already been linked with Myler and Wigan are also understood to be monitoring his progress but Salford insist he is thankfully staying put.

There’s no wonder Reds football director Steve Simms has issued a hands-off warning to potential buyers.

Simms insist is Myler is on a three-year contract and is very much an integral part of the club’s ambitious plans.

How the Widnes Vikings must rue letting him slip through the net.

Myler caught the eye again last night and Steve Simms may well be spending the weekend fending off more inquiries. It took Salford 27 minutes to open their account with Myler’s first try.

Reds’ first-half kicking game was very poor and they gave the impression there were too many “on-field generals” calling the shots.

Opponents

A number of players seemingly wanted to beat Whitehaven on their own – Myler eventually did but the Cumbrians were dogged opponents.

Reds defended manfully repelling a string of successive sets and eventually landed a telling blow from Myler.

The little scrum-half then latched on to a powerful Paul Highton break to go over for his and Salford’s second try making it 12-2 at the break.

Highton, who came off the bench, broke the cover and Myler had the pace and awareness to finish off a fine move.

Skipper Mal Alker further extended Reds’ lead but Craig Calvert and Howard Hill with a late try replied for Haven.

That man Myler eventually completed his hat-trick and Reds further extended their lead with a try from Stefan Ratchford.

Reds responded well to last weekend’s heavy Challenge Cup defeat by Wakefield and there was much good for coach Shaun McRae to ponder.

Reds showed plenty spirit and no one typified this more than Luke Adamson, who again worked tirelessly and provided the perfect platform for Myler to express himself.

Matt Gardner wrapped up the night for Salford in the dying minutes with a try which was converted.

National League 1
Salford (12) 36	Whitehaven (2) 10
Tries: Myler 3, Gardner, Alker, Ratchford	H Hill, Calvert
Goals: Turner 4, Ratchford 2	Rudd
Attend: 3,252

Archiving the Reds

Hello there.

It’s been a while since I wrote a legitimate blog post but now I’m back in work after we have had our baby and things are settling down after a spate of games in quick succession, now seems like a good time.

One of the reasons behind setting up this blogging subsite was to try to chart some of the history of the club and get it all online for future generations.

There are a couple of simultaneous projects going on and it may well be in time to come that these eventually all join forces to create one mega-site of the history of Salford RLFC. Doubtless there will be discussions with Gaz Shaw, Paul Parkin and the boys helping out over there about how best to move this forward.

One thing is for sure now though, it’s 2008 and there’s no reason that we can’t digitise our history as much as possible. What we as a club have begin to do using our Flickr photo site is get as many photographs online, for starters, from games this season, and as the weeks go by from seasons past.

This is easy to do from the last few years as the photos are digital, we do however have an older archive of prints that will need scanning and fixing before uploading. This is a longer term project and will be added to over time. It may be that some of the pics are never even viewed but it is correct that they are archived anyway.

I have also started uploading pics of past players into their own set. These can be as recent as the likes of Coley and Robinson but also will stretch back over time as we get chance to scan more. Some of these are illustrious faces that graced The Willows. Others will be Paul Carige Some will bring back belting memories such as little Paul Shaw, others will be Paul Carige.

By all means have a look round our Photostream at http://www.flickr.com/salfordcityreds or you can see the latest over there on the right or from the front page of reds.co.uk

I’m excited about the possibilities of being a part of getting all this archived ahead of the move in 2010 so if anybody has anything to contribute, feel free to drop me a line at paul.mcnally@reds.co.uk.

Cheers,

Paul

Salford City Reds Official Press Release

Salford City Reds players observed the new ‘City of Salford’ stadium plans earlier this week, when Project Managers, Drivers Jonas and stadium architects AFL, revealed detailed plans for player facilities during a presentation at The Willows. Keen to see how their new home for the 2010 season is taking shape, players took a keen interest in all aspects of the stadium design but more so the player facilities, including changing rooms, gym facilities, a 25 metre pool and pitch area, concluding the presentation with plenty of questions for the presenting architect. With interior areas of the stadium designed according to requirements of players and staff alike, the team and Salford City Reds employees were invited to observe the final draft before building begins later this year, a concept that is not lost on Reds Captain, Malcolm Alker:  “Having been used to the aging facilities of the willows, the new stadium facilities look amazing.  I think the future of Salford City Reds is looking very bright and with an International standard of stadium, I don’t thing the Reds will have many problems attracting the high profile rugby league players from around the world.” 

Follow the National Conference on Channel M

Salford City Reds media partner and shirt sponsor, Channel M will be following the fortunes of sides competing in the Fraser Eagle National Conference League plays offs tonight (Wednesday 23^rd April) at 7pm as part of the code XIII programme. The programme will then be repeated on Wednesdays (11pm), Thursdays (11am), Fridays (11am), Saturdays (11.30am) and Sundays (1.00pm). National Conference League Chairman Trevor Hunt said, “It is great to have Channel M on board like this, and of course they can be watched on digital TV or the worldwide Web. Hopefully sports fans will like what they see and come and try a live game or two. “As far as the matches go, Rochdale Mayfield’s extra time win at Leigh East was a terrifically gripping clash last week, and this Saturday’s games that have Minor Premiers, Leigh Miners Rangers at home to second placed East Hull, and Skirlaugh’s home visit from Mayfield, promises to be just as gripping.” Channel M are also looking forward to covering the amateur games flagship League. “We’re delighted to be working with the RFL and National Conference League in giving these fixtures an outlet for Grassroots Rugby League on television. We have no doubt over the quality on offer during the play-offs and feel they will be a worthy addition to what is an already successful programme format,” said James Lynch, Code XIII Producer. Channel M is the only local TV station for Manchester and is available on Terrestrial channel 39, Virgin Media channel 878 in the Greater Manchester region, and nationally on Sky channel 203. The Final will take place at Featherstone Rovers Chris Moyle’s Stadium on Saturday May 10th. The Fraser Eagle National Conference League Grand Final Play OffsSaturday 29th April 2008 Qualifying FinalLeigh Miners Rangers v East Hull Elimination semi finalSkirlaugh v Rochdale Mayfield Both kick off at 2.30pm.  

Reds’ Foundations Scoops Business Award

Salford City Reds Foundation took the community award at the first annual Salford Business Awards, which took place at The Lowry, Salford Quays yesterday evening (Thursday).

Beating off the recently launched, innovative and groundbreaking community station, Salford City Radio in the category, the Reds foundation picked up the award for their work in funding and increasing the levels of community work within the city, delivering numerous community initiatives and projects across Salford, involving younger, older and more vulnerable members of our community.

Projects currently include the Children In Need backed streetlights project, Silver surfers and the National sports foundation funded New Broughton Rangers project. The innovative streetlight and New Broughton Rangers projects, allow us to engage disillusioned young people across the Salford area using the medium of sport and rugby league. In addition the Silver Surfers scheme brings together young and old alike in this ICT based intergenerational heritage scheme.

Salford City Reds Foundation Manager, Mark Brocklehurst commented:

“This is a fantastic achievement for the Foundation and the club. After several years of hard work carried out by the club, behind the scenes in the local community this is a great recognition for all involved.”

The Foundation’s most recent work includes the ‘Golden Angel’ initiative, a concept engineered by Reds Chairman John Wilkinson, aimed at rewarding schoolchildren throughout the city for their achievements. This could be anything from excelling at sports, spelling, good attendance or simply showing an act of kindness to a fellow pupil, but whatever the reason the club wants each child to be acknowledged and congratulated for their achievements.

The concept has not been lost on other clubs who have been contacting the Reds for information on how the ‘Golden Angel’ Initiative operates and how they can incorporate a similar scheme into their match day. With local NL1 rivals Widnes Vikings inviting local school children to participate in their match day choir, the Reds scheme has really highlighted how clubs can benefit from working closely with educational establishments and introduce families to the sport of rugby league.

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