In a contest which finds both teams with the same number of wins, and sitting adjacently to each other in the league table, Salfordโs visit to East Hull, on Saturday promises to be a mouth-watering encounter.ย
Head Coach Ian Watson offers his thoughts ahead of the clash…
On opponents Hull KR…
Victories at Hull KR are always hard to come by, but in recent seasons we have had won some extremely important clashes there, such as last seasonโs victory in the Qualifiers, and Saturdayโs game there is important now because it is the next one on the fixture list.
Rover have spent well during the close season, Mitch Garbutt being one of the players they have strengthened their squad with, alongside others such as Jimmy Keinhorst and Ryan Lannon, while their Head Coach, Tim Sheens is very attack minded.
On Sundayโs defeat against Leeds…
We allowed Leeds to determine the pace of the game, and that turned the momentum in their favour.ย We, then, compounded that situation with further errors such as immediately kicking off into dead, on the full, and running offside at another kick-off both of which led to further spells of goal line pressure.
What we should have done was to have turned the pressure back onto Leeds, but that didnโt happen until we had good spell at the start of the second half, which culminated in our scoring.
The sinbinning later on, though, really hurt us, not so much whilst we were down to twelve men, but in the knock-on effect, in the later part of the game.ย Nevertheless, at sixty minutes, having not played at all well, and having been down to twelve men for ten minutes, we were still in the game against a talented side like Leeds.
On the impact on the weekโs training…
We didnโt give a true representation of what we are all about, last week, and that has hurt us all, considerably, so we need to rectify it quickly.ย This weekend will be all about us making a big improvement and making sure we get the defensive side of our game back on track because basically if you donโt defend you donโt win games.
The players were all extremely disappointed, and there was also the feeling that they had not done justice to themselves, nor lived up to the standards we had set ourselves.
On the trip to Humberside…
Clubs all like to win their home games, and KCOM Craven Park has always been a difficult place to go to.ย Hull KR will undoubtedly have set out to win all of their home games and that will certainly be the case for this weekend, so we will have to be prepared for a tough match, by going and performing as we did in the first two rounds.ย Itโs a case of bouncing back from last week.
We are just taking it one game at a time, and getting the points on Saturday is our key objective.ย Weโve got to go out and put our best foot forward to give everyone a reminder of what we are working to become.
Tickets for Saturdayโs game against Hull Kingston Rovers are still available from the AJ Bell Stadium Ticket Office and over the phone on 0161 786 1570. You can also book coach travel for this fixture by visiting the AJ Bell Stadium Ticket Office and over the phone on 0161 786 1570. Salford Red Devils retain 25% of any early ticket purchase. To see ticket prices and coach pick-up times and points, click HERE.
SOCIAL MEDIA
@SALFORDDEVILS
๐จ Paul Rowley has named a squad packed with first and reserve-team players for our friendly against Swinton Lions RLFC on... Sunday!
๐๏ธ Tickets are still available! ๐ https://bit.ly/3wxebT1
๐ช #TogetherStronger | ๐ด๐น
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ! ๐ฅ
Tickets for our opening ...home fixture against @hullkrofficial are on sale ๐ก๐ข๐ช!
Please note the ticket office is open between 12-4pm today, with our regular hours listed below... ๐
๐ช #TogetherStronger | ๐ด๐น
@SALFORDREDDEVILSRLFC