Third placed Warrington Wolves welcomed a Salford Red Devils side who needed a win to keep alive their slender chance of a top eight finish. The Red Devils had been hoping to get some of their docked points back for a breach of the salary cap but the appeal panel upheld the original deduction and fine.

Warrington are three points off the top two, but a win tonight would guarantee them a top four place going into the super eights.

Warrington were big favourites with the bookies, but it was likely to be a determined but disappointed Red Devils side who must feel that the world is against them.

After having the best of the opening seven minutes it was the Red Devils who opened the scoring when Junior Sa'u beat Stefan Ratchford to a Rob Lui grubber kick to ground one-handed. Gareth O'Brien slipped the ball across the face of the sticks, but it was a deserved early lead.

On twenty-one minutes Warrington opened their account when Rob Lui failed to tackle Joe Westerman as he took an Ashton Sims pass to scramble over the line. Stefan Ratchford added the extras and edged his side into the lead.

A simple try for Ryan Atkins, off a Chris Sandow pass, on thirty-four punished a Red Devils whose indiscipline was giving the Wolves repeated penalties and fields position. Declan Patton kicked the conversion from wide left to give his side an eight point lead at 12-4.

Atkins was in again two minutes from the break, this time stepping and jinking past Salford defenders from thirty meters. Patton again sailed the touchline conversion between the uprights for an 18-4 Wolves lead at the interval.

Four minutes after the interval and normal Warrington service was resumed when Tom Lineham took a Stefan Ratchford pass to duck under the defence and slide over in the right corner. Ratchford missed the conversion but at 22-4 it was increasingly unlikely that Saldord were going to get anything from this game.

On forty-nine, a nice passing move by Salford was completed with a fifteen metre run for Josh Griffin to push off the Wolves tacklers and score in the left corner. O'Brien missed his third kick of the night after slipping as he made contact with the ball.

On fifty-five Salford's Sean Kenny lost the ball as he went to ground for a try and four minutes later Joe Westerman made the Red Devils pay when he got his second of the night when he went from acting half-back to dummy the defence and spin over the line. Patton added the extras for 28-8.

On sixty-two Westerman had the ball stripped as he went for the line, the ball went forward but Declan Patton reacted quickly and grounded the ball. After sending the decision to the video referee the try was confirmed and when he added the conversion himself for 34-8 and secure the Wolves win.

On sixty-seven Matty Russell took advantage of the second Sandow 40-20 of the night when from the next play Sandow put a grubber into the in-goal which Russell won the race to ground. Patton kicked brilliantly again for his fifth from five attempts.

Rob Lui scored from the base of the scrum on seventy after outpacing the tacklers to score in the corner and when O'Brien kicked well from the touchline he put his side twenty-six adrift at 40-14, and that's how it remained until the final hooter.

Warrington seemed the sleepwalk through the opening thirty minutes against a Red Devils side who came out with a point to prove. When they finally woke into the game the Wolves took control and didn't look back. Salford became increasingly frustrated as the game went on, and in doing so increased their own error rate.

The Wolves are now within a point of the league leaders, but Salford Red Devils are now condemned to the middle eights where the will join Leeds Rhinos, Leigh Centurions and London Broncos along with four sides yet to be decided.

Wolves: Ratchford (G), Russell (T), Evans, Atkins (2T), Lineham (T), Patton (T, 5G), Sandow, Hill, Clarke, Sims, Currie, Hughes, Westerman (2T). Subs: Dwyer, Westwood, King T, King G.

Red Devils: O'Brien (G), Caton-Brown, Griffin J (T), Sa'u (T), Johnson, Lui (T), Dobson, Kopczak, Tomkins, Griffin G, Jones, Murdoch-Masila, Flanagan. Subs: Walne J, Walne A, Kenny, Hauraki.

Referee: Joe Cobb.

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