ANDY WILSON reflects on Salford’s rebirth on Friday night in their home game against Oldham.

WHAT a night for these old Lancastrian rivals to launch their 2026 seasons – a celebration of survival, with a healthy dollop of perspective on the side.

For Salford, the reason for celebration was obvious. Their 2025 campaign, surely the most miserable even in their rollercoaster history, had started with three players on the interchange bench and an 82-0 humiliation at St Helens. It ended in fitting acrimony with a pitch invasion followed by more months of doubt about the club’s future.

Yet here they were on a chilly January night, the car park encouragingly full an hour before kick-off and already a bustle in the merchandise store, the corporate area upstairs apparently packed with the great, good and wealthy.

By the time the new Board trotted down the stairs to welcome and acknowledge the grateful Salford public, the South Stand was genuinely bulging at the seams, fuller than I can remember seeing it for a Super League fixture.

The West Stand felt busy too, and rose to acclaim Malcolm Crompton, Paul Hancock, Ryan Brierley and Mason Caton-Brown – who still looked fit enough to play as he trotted up the stairs to speak to Radio Manchester in a pair of trousers much tighter than any of the current Super League club owners would (or should) countenance.

It was obvious from the kick-off, however, that there would be no fairytale home win.

Oldham, in a change strip of City blue ahead of the following lunchtime’s Manchester derby, took control through the uncompromising experience of Wildie, Ashurst, Milner and the eye-catching Owen Farnworth, with Josh Drinkwater sprinkling his class at regular intervals.

But the Salford fans recognised the wholehearted efforts of a callow team thrown together at short notice, and disrupted further by early injuries to Liam Cooper and Charlie Glover – they had made six interchanges inside 24 minutes, at which point they were 12-0 down.

Rafael Van Osselaear, a wing whose name would fit comfortably into the United squad for that derby but who has rejoined the original Red Devils after playing for their Academy last season, even claimed a try for Salford in the 25th minute.

Aaron Moore’s decision to disallow it for at least one forward pass was not especially challenging, but allowed the South Stand a first “You bent bastard” of the season – something else that could easily have been lost (if not missed).

But then came that perspective. A commotion among the few hundred Oldham fans sitting in the North section of the West Stand – followed quickly by the realisation it was a medical emergency.

The match was stopped. The talk in the queue at the bar was grim, from those who had been sitting near to the incident. Would such an uplifting occasion end abruptly and in tragedy? Suddenly Ryan Brierley, who had come down pitchside near the incident with Oldham’s Mike Ford, was staring at a very big decision, in his first match as a 33-year-old CEO.

For those Oldham supporters in the know, the news was even more worrying. The man in trouble was Steve Brown, stalwart of the Oldham Heritage Trust, one of the authors of Watersheddings Memories, and a key figure behind the exhibition celebrating the club’s 150th anniversary which recently opened at Gallery Oldham.

I’d only met Steve once, at a Heritage Trust function with a slightly reluctant son (or maybe grandson!), but it was immediately obvious he’s the sort of bloke Oldham Rugby League has come to rely on in their own dark days in recent decades – friendly, intelligent, and passionate about the club.

After a delay of around 20 minutes (although it felt much longer), the teams and Aaron Moore re-emerged. The patient was carried to an ambulance, but the fact the match resumed was very positive news – and better was to follow with a text message from Steve to his friends on the Heritage Trust from Salford Hospital a couple of hours later.

The delay, of around 25 minutes, may have helped Salford as it allowed them to recharge for the closing stages of the first half. With the typically brave Brad Dwyer clearly relishing the responsibility as their senior player by a distance, they only conceded one more try before the break, and competed strongly again after it until a slick combination between Tom Nisbet and Kieran Dixon sent Riley Dean over for the try of the night.

There was certainly no disgrace for Salford in a 44-0 final scoreline – Fin Yates, the only survivor of last year’s opener at St Helens, could attest to that.

They’ll surely improve, and won’t be facing the likes of Drinkwater every week in the expanded Championship – next week it’s Hammersmith Hills Hoists in the Challenge Cup.

Meanwhile Oldham have Orrell St James at Boundary Park before a trip to Wimbledon to face Jason Demetriou’s Broncos – allowing their fans some time to recover from car-parking charges of £12, which for some reason reminded me of a line about Jackson Lamb’s expenses in Slow Horses – “overshooting the inaccurate to become manifestly corrupt”.

Still, perspective. The millions who drive clockwise around the M60 over Barton Bridge in 2026 will still look down on a stadium that hosts both codes of rugby. And that’s definitely worthy of celebration.