Watson: Salford defence needs work

Salford head coach Ian Watson has lamented his team’s poor goal-line defence against Wakefield and says the Red Devils need belief.

Salford let in several soft tries on Saturday as the Wildcats won 32-18.

Watson said their defence must improve.

“Our defence was awful at the beginning of the game to be fair,” he admitted.

“To be fair, we’ve been really consistent in that area, defending, today we’ve dropped off that.

“Our kick-chase was poor in the first half and that sort of snowballed and allowed them to get a lot of field position and they scored when they got down there.

“So our goal-line D wasn’t great as well, where as the last few weeks it has been really good. It’s something we need to look at. It’s belief.”

Winger Justin Carney picked up a knock in the game on his ankle and is set for scans.

“We’ll probably know more later on,” Watson said.

“But he’s being looked at. I thought he might have cracked something but we’ll find out later on. He’s done something to his ankle.

“The physios are having a look at it now so we’ll access him a little bit later on and see where we go from there.”

Losing Carney would be a blow to a squad already without several first-team players, but Watson won’t be making excuses.

“It’s just one of those things, it opens the door for somebody else to have an opportunity,” he said.

“You can’t keep going on about what you’ve not got, you’ve got to deal with what you’ve got.

“Every club gets injuries, its how you deal with them while you’ve got them. We’re confident that we’ve got a good bunch of players in there, we’ve got some good young lads as well.

“Josh Wood was out there today. There’s players that can step up, although they might not be your first choice players, they’ve got to take the opportunity now and force your hand to say they are your first choice players.”