Salford owner Dr Marwan Koukash has apologised to Red Devils fans after his side was thrashed 0-38 by St Helens at the AJ Bell Stadium last night.
The Devils won both opening fixtures of the year and were poised to reach the top of the table for the first time in their history with a win against their north-west rivals. They were given a reality check, though, as Saints outplayed them thanks to the efforts of scrum-half Luke Walsh and foundations set by props Kyle Amor and Alex Walmsley.
“Apologies to our fans for a very bad performance tonight and well done Saints,” Koukash said via his Twitter account.
“We won’t play this bad again.”
Head coach Brian Noble said: “I am disappointed but those kind of things can happen with a new team.
“There were some great lessons for us. I would be more disappointed if that was round eight, nine or 10 and we dished up something like that.
“We got caught at the start but we got back in the game and that breakaway try 10 minutes into the second half knocked the stuffing out of us.
“I suppose for us the honeymoon period is over internally. We’ve been taking small steps, we’ve been looking at different combintions and pretty much everyone has played.
“It’s important we now get down to the nitty gritty of some tough practices and recognise it’s a marathon and not a sprint.
“There is nothing I have seen that we can’t improve on. The players are probably more disappointed than me.”
Salford’s misery was compounded when second-rower Gareth Hock limped off with less than 20 minutes remaining.
“It doesn’t look good,” Noble said.
“He’s going for a scan tomorrow and I’m keeping my fingers crossed but it’s looking like a six or seven week job.”
