Iestyn Harris admitted to being “concerned” after watching Salford crash out of the Challenge Cup with a 30-20 defeat against Widnes Vikings.
And Red Devils owner Dr Marwan Koukash issued an ominous warning to his players less than an hour after watching this latest defeat.
Koukash wrote on Twitter: “I have done all I can to bring success to Salford. The players NEED to respect the shirt they wear.
And Koukash, who had been expecting to fly to New Zealand this week to possibly agree a deal with New Zealand Warriors fullback or halfback Kevin Locke, has told Total Rugby League that he has decided to postpone the trip.
His thoughts on Sunday’s defeat seemed to echo the sentiments of Harris, who has now lost three of his first four games since replacing Brian Noble.
Harris insisted his side had not deserved to win, despite launching a late surge that almost resulted in them snatching a dramatic victory.
Harris said: “We got exactly what we deserved. Rugby League is about attitude and, certainly in the first half, they wanted it more than us.
“When you say that as a coach of the team that’s on the wrong side of that, it’s difficult to take. It’s concerning for me and it’ll be concerning for my team as well, but we’ll have a look at the reasons why that is and we’ll fix it up.
“I’ve never questioned the attitude of my players – I wouldn’t do that – but today they (Widnes) certainly wanted it more than us.”
He added: “They (Widnes) didn’t do any different plays in the second half compared to the first half, it’s just that we had a little bit of intent defensively.
“That’s what you need in sport. When you do that, you deal with pretty much anything that’s thrown at you. In the second half we had it, but in the first half we didn’t, and those questions have got to be asked of us.
“We’re learning day on day at the moment. There are lot of details that are being thrown at the team to become a winning side. We’ll be looking at it tomorrow and we’ll deal with it going forward.”
