ONE look at the Super League table confirms the most important thing was that Warrington won against Salford on Friday.

Victory at the AJ Bell Stadium keeps Wolves a point behind the top four – key for Grand Final hopes – and also creates a four-point gap to the bottom quartet, an area fraught with the threat of losing Super League status.

Friday night’s win against a Salford side that had lost five previous matches was certainly not a given despite never being behind.

Wolves found Salford difficult to break down and sticky to shake off, with loss of concentration at times meaning leads of 16-6 and 22-12 were pegged back to four points.

Only tries by Brad Dwyer in the 67th minute and Gene Ormsby soon after settled the outcome.

That last Ormsby score was the best of an acrobatic hat-trick, backing his physical strength and agility by leaping into his marker Greg Johnson from three metres out and spectacularly planting the ball while both legs pointed to the sky.

Each of his tries were the result of smart passes and creativity from the on-fire Ben Currie, who went top of Wolves’ 2015 try-scoring chart with an opportunist deadlock breaker from a ‘charge down’ in the 11th minute.

Wolves’ strike power on the left was a necessity because the right-hand side was disrupted from early on by head injuries to scrum half Richie Myler and Ben Harrison.

Although Chris Bridge did a fine job carrying the ball after switching to the halves, back rower James Laithwaite was the man to replace him at right centre and the unfamiliar combination meant Wolves were bound to favour the left for their killer plays.

Low on rotation options, made worse with an ankle injury to Chris Hill, Brad Dwyer’s arrival in the second half provided much needed energy when Salford looked to be getting on top.

A second ‘show and go’ score in as many weeks from Dwyer was a great way to celebrate his new two-year deal as well as dousing Salford’s flames before Ormsby’s spectacular finale sent fans home mostly happy.

MATCH FACTS

Salford Red Devils...18 Warrington Wolves...34

Devils: Niall Evalds; Greg Johnson, Jason Walton, Junior Sa'u, Ben Jones-Bishop; Weller Hauraki, Theo Fages; Scott Taylor, Josh Wood, Adam Walne, Cory Paterson, Jordan Walne, Harrison Hansen. Subs: Liam Hood, Adrian Morley, George Griffin, Carl Forster.

Wolves: Stefan Ratchford; Kevin Penny, Chris Bridge, Ryan Atkins, Gene Ormsby; Declan Patton, Richie Myler; Chris Hill, Daryl Clark, Ashton Sims, Ben Currie, Ben Westwood, Ben Harrison. Subs: Roy Asotasi, James Laithwaite, Brad Dwyer, George King.

Scoring: Currie try, 11mins, Ratchford goal, 0-6; Paterson try, 14mins, Paterson goal, 6-6; Ormsby try, 18mins, 6-10; Ratchford try, 25mins, Ratchford goal, 6-16; Sa'u try, 37mins, Paterson goal, 12-16; Ormsby try, 61mins, Ratchford goal, 12-22; Evalds try, 63mins, Paterson goal, 18-22; Dwyer try, 67mins, Ratchford goal, 18-28; Ormsby try, 71mins, Ratchford goal, 18-34.

Penalties: Devils 5 Wolves 9

Referee: Ben Thaler

Attendance: 6,159

Top man: Ben Currie

Eight of Salford's players started in different positions to the team sheet, including Weller Hauraki in the unfamiliar stand-off role

Wolves' fourth win in five games

Ben Westwood's 350th appearance for Wolves

Gene Ormsby has scored five tries in his last two Super League games