Dave Hewitt maintained that there were positives to take from his side’s performance despite the areas of weakness as Salford RLFC fell to a 22-12 defeat away to Hunslet in league action.
The Salford boss conceded that last Sunday’s defeat stemmed from self-inflicted “errors and penalties” however found a handful of positives to take away from the loss.
In a frustrating visit to South Leeds Stadium, it was the hosts Hunslet RLFC who had the telling touch, with their commanding victory seeing them leapfrog Salford in the Championship table with their first victory over the visitors in 60 years.
It looked grim for the visitors from the outset, with talisman Billy Jowitt’s ninth-minute try and conversion followed by Dan Abram under the posts ten minutes later stretching the gulf to 12 points in favour of the hosts on the 20-minute mark, and what a long way back it looked for Salford already.
There was momentary resistance and uprising from Salford’s middlemen, including an incisive piece of play creating scope for Callum Green to bundle over the line following Jack Bibby’s first half try.
But ultimately it was the Parksiders who made home advantage count for double, as they ran out decisive victors after four tries with three converted.
The result leaves Salford sitting in 15th place in the BetFred Championship, level on points with last weekend’s opponents.
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“I think that first 15 minutes our completion was around 40%, which is nowhere near good enough for any Rugby League game; and they scored points off the back of it,” said Salford boss Hewitt after the disappointing result.
“Overall, I thought end of sets was quite a big area that we needed to improve and I just thought we fell short again this weekend.
“Our full middle unit was good in defence scenarios, but we just switched off on last plays.”
But despite the result, there were plenty of aspects that Hewitt remained optimistic about.
“There’s always positives to take from it. I think defensively we were really, really good, our middles especially were outstanding and some of them have had to play bigger minutes than usual.
“I think the massive positive to take is that our defence was good I know we conceded 22 points, but it’s predominantly from our own doing, our own errors, our own penalties, switching off on last plays.
“When we have got enough ball, we are throwing threats, and there’s some missed opportunities again there, we had three or four last week and we probably got two or three today. We just have to learn quickly off the back of it going into Workington next week.”
Salford RLFC host Workington Town next Sunday at 3pm in the Championship.
