A mouthwatering prospect was on offer at The City of Salford Stadium as the Red Devils looked to back up last weeks win over the Wakefield Wildcats with a revenge defeat of the Leigh Centurions side who dumped them out of the Challenge Cup earlier this season.

Just eleven miles separate these two sides who both have aspirations of Super League in 2016. The Reds were eyeing top spot, but a thirty-three point win for Leigh could see them top.

Could the Centurions replicate their Ladbrokes Challenge Cup win and defeat Salford for a second time? The next eighty minutes would give us a good indication of how the Qualifiers might pan out.

Within the opening four minutes it was the home side who benefitted from a silly Leigh penalty to move the ball to the right wing where Ben Jones-Bishop took advantage of a neat passing move, and an overlap, to ground by the corner flag. Michael Dobson slid the conversion wide of the posts but it was the worst possible start for the visitors from Leigh.

After the first Salford try it was one-way traffic in favour of the visitors but they couldn't make it over the whitewash. Somewhat against the run of play, on twenty-seven minutes, Scott Taylor went over off the first pass to score by the sticks. Dobson goaled for 10-0 and after a strong defensive stint against the Leigh onslaught The Red Devils had their due reward.

Four minutes later and Ian Thornley added to Leigh's woes as he found a gap on the overlap to go over without a Leigh hand on him. Dobson pushed the ball between the sticks from a difficult angle for 16-0.

Leigh had claimed two first half tries which had both been waved away by the officials, and the half had not been as one-sides as the scoreline suggested. If the Centurions could get on the score sheet early in the second half then is was all to play for, if Salford opened the scoring then they would likely be taking their second win of the Qualifiers campaign.

Two minutes into the second half and it was Rangi Chase who stepped and jinked his way for twenty metres to dive over under the sticks and strike a hammer blow for the Red Devils. When Dobson added the extras it was 22-0 and a long way back for Leigh.

The Centurions registered their first points of the afternoon on fifty-one when a flying Adam Higson dove over in the right corner off a cut-out pass. Martyn Ridyard converted from the touchline for 22-6 and within a minute, and on the kick-off return, Gregg McNally took a pass on the half way line and went fifty metres to score under the sticks. Ridyard added the extras and the gap was down to ten points.

The Red Devils then stepped up a gear and took the game back to Leigh. On sixty a Rangi Chase grubber saw Junior Sau win the foot race and ground one-handed. Dobson kicked well from the right touchline for 28-12 with twenty minutes remaining.

The final nail in the Leigh coffin came on sixty-three when Rangi Chase wrong footed six attempted tacklers to cross by the right upright for a magical try and give Dobson a simple conversion for 34-12.

It was becoming a Devils procession four minutes later when a Dobson pass put Niall Evalds over for a walk-in, and when Dobson added the extras the home side were through the forty.

Greg Johnson got in on the act on seventy when he made the most of some scrappy Salford passing to go in on the left wing. Dobson kicked the extras and it was turning into a Leigh nightmare afternoon.

There was some consolation from Leigh on seventy-eight when a Ridyard break put McNally through a gap to cross under the posts. Ridyard added the two but the home side were still twenty-eight points ahead at 46-18 with a couple of minutes left on the clock.

Just like Wakefield yesterday with their big win over the Bulls, the Red Devils emphasised the size of the gap between the bottom four Super League clubs, and the top four from the Championship. Elsewhere there were big wins for Widnes over Sheffield and Hull KR over Halifax leaving the league table with the top four slots all occupied by the 2015 Super League teams.

Devils: Evalds (T), Jones-Bishop (T), Sau (T), Thornley (T), Johnson (T), Chase (2T), Dobson (7G), Griffin G, Tomkins, Taylor (T), Hansen, Maitua, Paterson. Subs: Lee, Krasniqi, Tasi, Morley.

Centurions: McNally (2T), Higson (T), Pala, Armstrong, Kay, Ridyard (3G), Brierley, Emmitt, Higham, Wilkes, Dixon, Goulden, Barlow. Subs: Beswick, Haggerty, Aspinwall, Moimoi.

Referee: Richard Silverwood
Attendance: 4,547