SALFORD RED DEVILS went down 26-12 to St Helens despite leading 12-0 at one stage.
The Red Devils started like a house on fire with Brodie Croft and Ryan Brierley dotting down before Saints registered 26 unanswered points to win at a canter.
However, Salford had to switch things around when both Andy Ackers and Shane Wright had to leave the field following heavy knocks and tackles.
And Red Devils boss Paul Rowley would have liked to have seen “strong decisions” following those issues from the officials as he praised St Helens.
“We definitely left a lot of points on the field, our discipline with the ball hurt us more than anything. The game in the second-half was too quick,” Rowley said on Channel 4.
“I don’t want to sound disrespectful but they beat us up in that second-half. We didn’t show our best in that second-half after what was a great first-half.
“I thought our ball control was woeful. We need a little bit of luck but we had Andy Ackers and Shane Wright going off which hurt us energy wise. We needed a couple of strong decisions which would have helped in that respect.
“We left too much on the field.”
Salford now go up against the Huddersfield Giants next weekend in the Challenge Cup Sixth Round, but Ackers and Wright will miss out.
