SALFORD RED DEVILS boss Paul Rowley warned about the challenges his club could be facing soon after they were hammered 80-6 at Hull FC.
With many players on short-term loans at the financially-troubled crisis club, they need to attract more similar arrangements if their remaining fixtures are going to be fulfilled.
Rowley said: “We could have a totally different team of loan players next week. I’m not sure people will be jumping through their skin to come. What are we on with squad numbers now? Sixty-something? We’ll run out of shirts soon, I think.”
Reflecting on the state the club found itself in and how they got to that point, he said: “You’ve got to remember that since 2019 this is a club that’s been in a Challenge Cup final, a Grand Final, produced two Men of Steel. Within the last six years, we’ve been hitting some highs, batting above our average consistently.
“Today I think we put out a team that had a salary cap value of just under £200,000 so I reckon we’d be pretty much in the bottom half of the Championship with that salary cap.
“There was clearly a gulf in class and it’s a sad situation. The last couple of weeks have been about the toughest. Losing Ryan (Brierley) and Jack (Ormondroyd) in the week probably was, I’m not saying the final nail in the coffin, but a tough one to take.
“I’ve got a lot of gratitude to the lads who have turned up from other clubs because of the attitude they have shown but this sport is too hard to meet people on the bus for the first time and go into a stadium like the against a team like this so it’s a sad situation really, it’s upsetting me.”
Rowley praised the spirit in the camp still, explaining: “Everybody has always had the club-first mentality.
“The word professional, generally, people think it means getting paid but it’s about how consistent you are, how you hold yourself and the standards that you set for yourself and hold yourself to – and we’ve got an unbelievable group of professional people working for Salford who just want to compete and win and progress so I can’t speak highly enough of everybody at the club.
“Every person who has left us has not wanted to leave and that probably shows you that Salford has got something really special.
“Opposing supporters and clubs have been fantastic with us and I’ve got to just say Hull today probably just topped that off, players, staff and supporters I thought were fantastic. I appreciated what they did for our team today in terms of showing their appreciation. That was pretty special.”