SALFORD were put to the sword by Brian Noble's Crusaders in a game seen as the battle of Super League's cellar-dwellers.

The Wrexham-based team, last season's wooden-spooners, had conceded 72 points to Leeds and Wigan in their opening two games, but they opened their 2010 campaign with an impressive 36-16 win against a Salford side who were quite clearly second best.

Vince Mellars helped himself to a hat-trick of tries, while Frank Winterstein, Michael Witt, who booted four conversions, Jamie Thackray and Gareth Raynor all crossed to give Brian Noble his first win in charge.

The opening try arrived in the third minute following a good spell of possession.

Witt came up with high, hanging cross-field kick which was taken expertly by centre Mellars who climbed above Dean McGilvray and dropped over the line. Witt then proceeded to add the extras.

Opener

But from the re-start, and just two minutes later, Peter Lupton failed to pouch the kick and the hosts scored their opener.

The ball was quickly shipped to Dan Holdsworth, who was hugging the right touchline, to finish well in the corner. Stefan Ratchford made it 6-6 when he slotted the resulting conversion between the posts.

The Crusaders scored once more in the ninth minute with Winterstein finishing in the corner following a well-timed pass from Lupton who managed to atone for his earlier error.

Witt was off target with the conversion as he was with his next when Mellars crossed for his second in the 13th minute.

The Crusaders centre's score was a carbon copy of his first, fast hands creating a gaping hole in the Reds' defence out wide which he exploited on his way to the line.

Matty Smith knocked on when Salford broke in numbers and looked certain to score.

Cross

But he made no mistake when offered another chance to cross the whitewash in 28th minute.

A fantastic break from the lively Holdsworth created the chance and eventual try-scorer Smith was handily positioned on the inside to notch Salford's second converted score of the night.

Attacking The Willows Nightclub end in the second half it took the visitors just a minute to pull further ahead.

A series of attacks down the right were followed by a huge kick to the far corner and Mellars, who produced a huge leap above McGilvray for a second time, took the ball well before crashing over.

Witt, who tagged on the extras, got in on the act with a score of his own five minutes later following some good passing rugby, again down the Salford left.

A neat exchange of passes, the crucial one coming from Luke Dyer, allowed the scrum-half to weave his way through and stretch for the line. Another score for the visitors arrived just after the hour mark following Holdsworth's sin-binning for holding down.

The ball was worked wide and a clear numerical advantage allowed Thackray to scamper his way under the posts.

Salford, who have huge problems to address following tonight's defeat, scored a late consolation through Karl Fitzpatrick but it proved little consolation as Raynor added a seventh.