THE name Marwan Koukash resonates with every rugby league fan in the northern hemisphere.
Having taken over the then-named Salford City Reds in 2013, Koukash rebranded them to the Red Devils before exiting the sport in 2018, selling the club to a fan consortium.
Along the way, there were a number of major flashpoints, including the signing of the likes of Rangi Chase and Gareth Hock, alongside a points deduction for salary cap breaches in 2016.
It was, however, an incredible Million Pound Game win over Hull KR – in which Gareth O’Brien landed a drop goal from the halfway line – in 2016 that has become synonymous with the Koukash era at Salford.
The points deduction given to the Red Devils earlier in the year consigned them to a relegation battle after they had pushed for a play-off spot.
Trailing 18-10 with two minutes to go against Rovers at Craven Park, the Red Devils – under head coach Ian Watson – did the unthinkable.
Scoring two tries in the last two minutes, Salford forced golden-point extra-time before Gareth O’Brien landed one of the greatest drop goals in rugby league history to keep the Red Devils in Super League in 2017.
Looking back, Koukash has reflected on that game and the aftermath.
“It was a game that we knew we were confident of winning. And that particular game will go down in history as possibly the biggest sporting comeback ever in any sport,” Koukash said on the Meet Sean O’Neill podcast.
“The stakes were high with two minutes to go. We were the equivalent in football to probably being three goals down with two minutes to go. So, the emotions were very high.
“I looked at our bench and our medical team at that time. And they were crying as though we had gone I walked down and you could see that on the coverage from the BBC.
“I walked straight to the spoke to the coach and said, don’t give up, there’s still two minutes to go, we can do this.
“And with two minutes, it was absolutely incredible, we went and scored three times. We survived. I couldn’t believe it. Two minutes earlier, the Hull fans had been giving me that ‘goodbye Super League’.
“I was with my daughter at the time but the language that was coming out of them, well, we won with seconds to go and then I turned around to their fans. But I thought what have I done here? Because all the Hull fans ran to me as I ran to the bench to celebrate.
“Next thing I know our fans came in to protect me and the pitch became a fight between our fans and theirs. I’m there in the middle with my daughter and I’m thinking ‘get me out of here.’ Eventually I got through the tunnel to safety.
“But that’s the trouble I’ve caused myself. I’m a human. Right? I’m a human being. I’m a fan. And to be three goals down or you need to score three goals to survive and you do it. We all have emotions.
“I remember an hour after the game when I had calmed down, I was walking with Layla out of their stadium and the police said to me, ‘where are you going?’ I said, ‘I’m going to my car’. He said, ‘if you go out, they’ll kill you.’
“I needed a police escort to get me out of Hull. I had a police car in front of me, a police car at the back of me and they escorted me out of Hull and told me to not come back for a while.”
