Chris Melling notched a hat-trick of tries as Salford slumped to a third successive engage Super League defeat.

Harlequins romped into a 22-0 lead midway through the first half with ex-Wigan winger Melling bagging a treble before the break.

Salford trailed 30-6 at the interval before a better second-half show with converted tries from John Wilshere and Robbie Paul cut the gap to 12 points.

But Harlequins secured victory when Chad Randall caught Salford napping to dart over from dummy half in the 69th minute and make it 36-18.

Harlequins were not finished with Luke Dorn and Daniel Heckenberg crossing in the last four minutes and Danny Orr finishing with six goals from nine attempts.

Salford were dealt a pre-match blow with rising star Richie Myler ruled out with a broken hand to join Willie Talau, Mark Henry and Ian Sibbit on the sidelines.

But Quins, after a battling home defeat by Wigan, were also weakened by the absence of skipper Rob Purdham, Luke Williamson and ex-Salford forward Gareth Haggerty.

Salford, after an encouraging opening home win over Celtic Crusaders, had leaked 81 points in crushing defeats at Wakefield and Castleford.

They handed Jordan Turner, Stefan Ratchford, Jason Walton and Adam Sidlow their first matches of the season.

But the fragile defence was again cruelly exposed as Quins ran in four tries in the opening 20 minutes.

Quins took only 90 seconds to go ahead when Melling latched onto Danny Orr's kick to cross in the corner.

Then David Howell bagged a brace in two minutes, bursting onto Dorn's grubber kick before taking Tony Clubb's smart pass to grab converted tries.

Salford were left chasing shadows with Joe Mbu adding to their woes when he swept over to stretch the lead to 22-0.

The Reds managed to hold out for 10 minutes until Melling raced over in the corner for his second try and then completed his hat-trick.

Salford had to wait until the 39th minute before skipper Rob Parker crashed over with Wilshere adding the conversion to make it 30-6.

But Parker's effort could not stop the Salford fans chanting "what a load of rubbish" as Shaun McRae's men trooped off the pitch.

McRae's half-time talk obviously had an effect with Karl Fitzpatrick on fire for the Reds, setting up Paul's try and having another disallowed.

Dorn then added Quins' eighth try on his return to the Willows four minutes from time before Heckenberg completed the romp.