With Rovers now well and truly in line for a SL return I guess there are a few implications. Firstly a Good Friday derby at Craven Park, almost 3 years to the day since they last beat us in a competitive game. We'll get a Magic weekend tie against them rather than Saints (hopefully can't be any worse than this year's horror show). Whilst their relegation drama has been the source of much fun/mockery for the fans, FC's board will be delighted to see them back from a financial and media perspective. Pros and cons but they surely bring more to the table than Widnes or Leigh? Hope Catalans survive though, McNamara not having much impact yet

I'm not overly fussed if they get back up or not. I think we've come on enough in the last few years that their presence wouldn't cause us many problems. I'd imagine the first derby would pull in 20k+ but then by the following year the novelty would wear off again and we'd all be back complaining there's too many derbies.

Still a long way to go anyway. Slip up to London or Featherstone and it would take the shine right off today's win. Thought they were quite lucky today that their last try stood. No idea how Scruton's play the ball wasn't given as an error.
That been said Leigh had more than enough chances. Tactics by Rovers in the final minute to just lay on until the ref blew his whistle were spot on, and something that if they did for just 1 tackle last year again Salford would likely have stopped them getting relegated to begin with.

You do like to point out the timeline since our last victory

I can hear the Tim Sheens "triage of doom" right now. Anyone with an injury in the month up to Easter will be instantly classed in post match interview as long term/season-ending. Then on Wednesday..you know the drill


Welcome back lad

Not missed the derbies. Not missed the "banter". Thought it was a poor quality game today TBH.
Glad we didn't get Cookie as attack coach now


I'm sure AP will be happy if they do it, but I've enjoyed not having the distraction of that lot this year.
The RFL would have done their best to get them up anyway.

If they get rid of the friendly game, and we don't get the derby forced upon us at Magic weekend then I'd be happy for them to come back up. They need a lot of players though

No interest in KR, another 2 points, were aiming higher than "local bragging rights"

they raised their game v leigh, most probably will against other SL teams in the middle 8s

yet struggled v a fellow championship team in their first game, if they dont back it up next week v london, todays' win will be wasted

as for the derbies, not missed them at all

Agreed.

We've got another Cup final in a couple of weeks and hopefully a top four play off to come. Who cares about the little clubs like Leigh, Rovers, Halifax, London etc.

Like I say, I think the RFL will get them up anyway, via a restructure, either this year or next.
The Dobbins will be happy to have their cup final back.
Like as had been said earlier, we need to move on from local bragging rights and cement our place as a powerhouse in the Super League.
Another Cup Final, a top four finish and playing in Australia will hopefully help us do this.

I'd much rather they don't come back. Still there's an awful lot of work for them to do if it does happen, their pack is as feeble as ever. Terrible game today - thrown away by Leigh and another quite dreadful refereeing performance by Smith.

They need us more than we need them. At the end of the day, if they come up then it's likely to be 4 or 6 free points on recent history.