Holmes is a long term injury hence why we’ve brought in Hooley.

What sort of long term injury?  Hooley at fullback is a decent replacement.  If we're potentially without Blake, Okunbor and Taufua as well we're going to need more than just Myers.  

Upper body/Pec injury apparently.

Well, Taufua didn't finish the game, so will be a big doubt. The other 2 managed to finish I suppose. Gill was in the squad and not chosen so can come back in. But yes, we're very thin in the backs department. 

Hooley, Okonbur, Blake, Taufua, Pele, all in the 21 man squad unfortunately so is Meadows. 

Hooley
Okunbor
Blake
Gill
Armitage
Meadows
Keyes
Bayliss
Souter
Lawrence
Fulton
Gee
Donaldson
---
Michael
Hallas
Lilley
Pele

Am I correct in saying Salford are still in special measures?

Yes Salford are indeed still in special measures, they have put out almost the same 17 as their last game v Cas.

Should make things interesting and if we can get back to the standard of play from that first half performance v Cas we must be in with a shout, although, as has been pointed out, how valuable is it for us to progress in a competition where there are no img points on offer?

I don't really buy into the "what's it worth to progress" point. 


We are a competitive sports team. Surely the aim is to do as well as possible in all the competitions we are eligible for.
Surely we want to see our team test themselves against the best opposition available. 


Plus beating another SL side, while having no direct points benefit, doesn't do our status any harm. 

I have mixed feelings about it. I agree that testing ourselves against SL opposition should be what we want, but the turn out against Cas was poor. And indeed beating a SL side certainly improves out claim to a seat at the top table. I feel img has shifted the focus away from or at least diluted the principal of competitive sport which is just that, competition. There is instead a weird focus on tv gantries and scoreboards ( which do potentially enhance the experience, but is certainly not the main point of it all). Regardless I'll be at Salford hoping for a SL scalp.