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Saints handed double blow
Rugby League, 11:15, July 4, 2009 ,
Super League leaders St Helens crashed to a 20-10 defeat at struggling Salford on Friday and Sean Long suffered a suspected broken jaw.
The Saints were up against it from the off as Salford's Stefan Ratchford scored two tries in the opening 10 minutes of the clash and John Wilshere converted both to put the hosts 12-0 up. Ratchford helped provide a third score in the 16th minute, with centre Darrell Goulding crossing in the left corner.
St Helens fought back after the break as Andrew Dixon and Francis Meli scored, but Mark Henry also crossed for the Reds to end the visitors' record-breaking run of 16 straight away wins.
It was a disappointing night for Mick Potter's side, who were already without injured trio Keiron Cunningham, Leon Pryce and Jon Wilkin, as Long was replaced in the second half after suffering a suspected broken jaw following a tackle from Henry.
Potter said: "Longy has got a broken jaw we think so he's going to hospital tonight.
"I didn't see the incident and we'll just have to wait and see how serious it is."
On the match, he added: "The other team were better than us and we made too many errors.
"It was probably, by the standard that the players have set, the poorest performance in my six months here."
Salford boss Shaun McRae said: "I can't explain it. You play against sides that are evenly matched and sometimes you just don't perform, but the best sides bring the best out of you.
"This victory was just reward for the players' effort. We had a set gameplan and it worked. And I've got to give credit to the players for being able to implement to that plan to a tee.
"I'm not happy with Jeremy Smith's sinbinning but I'm generally very happy because we've beaten the best side in St Helens."