Watson: Saints’ late show a “tough lesson”

Salford boss Ian Watson admits his players learnt a “tough lesson” during Friday’s 25-24 defeat at St Helens.

Matty Smith’s long distance drop-goal after the full-time hooter completed an amazing fightback from Saints who had looked down and out with seven minutes remaining as they trailed 24-8.

Watson said: “It was a tough lesson and a tough way to learn a lesson.

“We didn’t play particularly well in the first half but we rectified that in the second. We started to play with resilience in defence but in the last ten minutes it was like we’d already won the game.

“If you do that against any good team you’re going to get bit. We need to take that as a lesson and learn it pretty quickly, because the further you get down the track there are going to be big games where we need that arm-wrestle mentality.

“I thought Todd Carney controlled the game along with Rob Lui and we got into a big lead, but we shouldn’t be giving that lead up.

“It’s tough to take but we will put it to bed and learn lessons for next week.”