Catalans winger Cotric opened the scoring in the first exchanges when he was adjudged to have scored in the corner, but full-back Sam Tomkins – making his 400th career appearance – missed his conversion attempt from the right touchline.
The hosts dominated the early stages, and when Alrix Da Costa was able to get his offload away to Tomkins, the 36-year-old broke clear and ran for the line but was held up by some good scrambling defence from the visitors.
Catalans did get their second try of the match moments later when, after Salford half-back Jayden Nikorima’s short restart was turned over by the hosts, Reimis Smith found Romano, who broke clear to touch down.
In an often gruelling first 40 minutes, Catalans’ Whitehead was sent to the sin-bin for a late shot on Tiaki Chan – the son of Catalans general manager Alex Chan – who was forced off after a head injury assessment.
Now with a man advantage, the Red Devils, who welcomed back captain Kallum Watkins and Chris Atkin, soon got on the board.
Chris Hill threw an excellent dummy before offloading one-handed to Shorrocks, who strolled under the sticks. Chris Hankinson added the extras to make it 8-6 at half-time.
Two minutes into the second-half Whitehead made up for his earlier misdemeanour when he dotted down in the in-goal area to score his first try since returning to the club following an eight-year spell in the NRL with Canberra Raiders.
Shortly after, former Red Devils scrum-half Theo Fages dived over for the hosts when he expertly sidestepped the Salford defence as Catalans threatened to run away with the tie.
But after resisting waves of attacking play from the hosts, the talented Esan Marsters found a gap and set up Foster – a last-minute inclusion after the injury to Brierley, who earlier this week opened up on the mental torment Salford’s current financial woes had caused the squad – to score and reduce the arrears to eight points.
It proved too little too late for the visitors, but showed Salford’s continued determination to make a fight of it this season after it was reported that Catalans had paid for their trip to Perpignan for tonight’s fixture.
