Salford Red Devils boss hails ‘amazing’ performance to hammer St Helens

Salford Red Devils head coach Paul Rowley believes his side had been “building” towards their shock thrashing of St Helens.

They scored eight tries in a stunning display to inflict only a fourth defeat of the season on the Super League leaders and return to the play-off places.

Even more impressively, Salford had only 18 players available for the fixture, but have managed a mounting injury toll to hit form.

“I couldn’t be prouder,” beamed Rowley after the win in front of more than 6,000 supporters at the AJ Bell Stadium.

“It’s an amazing effort. Without sounding casual about it, we have been building towards that.

“From day one the lads have worked really hard. Things like that (winning today) are not a fluke, it’s a result of hard work.

“The character of the group has never been questioned. We had 18 players and the 18th man had a jab to warm up.

“We knew the areas we wanted to go to and this group knows how to adapt. We are quite difficult to stop when we get on a roll and we scored some fantastic tries.

“We have so much respect for St Helens and our staff and players hold them in high regard. They are the benchmark.”