Paul Rowley “proud” in defeat as injury concerns mount for Salford

Drew Darbyshire
Paul Rowley Salford Red Devils News Images

Photo: Craig Thomas/News Images

Salford coach Paul Rowley was proud of his side’s effort in their defeat at Wigan, but revealed that three more players are doubts for next week.

The Red Devils led 16-8 after an hour but the Warriors fought back in the final quarter to claim a 20-16 win at the DW Stadium on Friday night.

Speaking after the game, Rowley said: “We always turn up expecting to win and planning to win so it’s not as though we creep in and hope that something happens or we might get close. We always back ourselves.

“For most of the game I thought we were very good. Everybody knows we can play good rugby but I thought we showed a different side to us tonight that people don’t know already, that we are a tough, resilient rugby team.

“I’ve got no complaints, I thought it was a really good game and we were busted at the end and our opposition had the luxury of putting a winger to full-back (Bevan French) who is a star player and star players win tight contests like that, especially when one side is pretty busted.”

REPORT: Wigan 20-16 Salford: Unreal assists, outrageous dummy & Warriors comeback

Paul Rowley: We are down on troops

Salford were already down on troops heading into the clash, with the likes of Andy Ackers, Alex Gerrard, Ollie Partington and Andrew Dixon out injured.

And Rowley revealed three more players could be in doubt for next Sunday’s match against Huddersfield, but didn’t specify who.

He added: “I think there’ll be about three of the boys who will need some scans and stuff so we could potentially be missing three lads for next week.

“When Tim Lafai went off and we were changing troops all over the place.

“We’ve got players out there who have played way too many minutes. We’ve got players out there who are coming back from injury like Danny Addy, so we’ve got to be careful with his minutes and (Adam) Sidlow, people like that.

“I’m always proud of this side and we’ll always back ourselves, we try not to play the victim too much.

“The fact of the matter is we’ve not got the biggest squad and when we lose key individuals it is quite detrimental.

“Of course I’m proud, but we don’t want to be proud of coming close to a club. We are about winning so we’ll just crack on.”

Phenomenal Dupree

Rowley paid tribute to the efforts of forward pair Tyler Dupree and Shane Wright, who both played big minutes.

The Salford boss added: “The minutes that Tyler Dupree did for a young lad is phenomenal, the same goes for Shane Wright. They played all over the place.

“(I thought) we did enough but troops and resources gets you in the end unfortunately and thats the way it is.”

Salford forward Danny Addy left the field for a head injury assessment in the latter stages of the game but passed. He will be able to play in next week’s match against Huddersfield.

READ NEXT: Wigan boss explains positional change that saw Cade Cust benched