Certainly from my recollection of the past two years it seems our inability to beat teams of a similer standard has really been a problem. I have often argued that any progress for us has to be measured by our efforts against those teams in the middle ranking, Wakefield, Castleford, Harlequins etc not the occasional outstanding results against the bigger teams. Beating the middle ranking teams at home is a must for a club of our current size and standing if we want to make the fringes of the play offs. Yesterday was a good example of a game that was winnable before we kicked off but we were unable to see it through. Castleford are a decent side and had enough to win so credit to them. Great as it is to beat Saints i would swap it for wins against Catalans and Crusaders at home. Those two games were certainly a low point. Hopefully we can start to add consistancy to our efforts in what remains of the season. We have talent at Salford and a new stadium to look forward too. hopefully we can start to string wins together and build a good start point for next year.

So who do we blame for this, because the players are good enough, but as McRae says Castleford were up for it from the start and Salford were not. Who prepares them before the game?
If we get the prep right then we should be knocking out wins, but too often this season we have been caught within the first few minutes and are then climbing a mountain to get back into the game.
We need to be ready from the kick off and that comes from having a clear objective before the start and fully prepared to play, that does not appear to be happening.
So who is responsible?

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I want to know why weve started getting Ganson again this year?? We hadnt had him for a few years due to the complaints we made about him.

Why do we always seem to get Ganson now in these '4 pointer' home games?

Think it's about time Mr McRae made an appointment to see Stuart Cummings!!

Why do we always look to blame the ref?


Players missed tackles and the coach had a poor game plan. That game was there for the taking, we were at home no excuses.

Ok you've had me thinking about referees stats against us. Over the past 2 seasons;

T Alibert – 57%
J Child – 43%
I Smith – 33%
P Bentham - 29%
J Leahy – 25%
S Ganson – 25%
B Thaler – 17%
R Silverwood – 0%
G Hewer – 0% (We've had him 5 times and never won!)

Slightly surprising.

They're win percentages BTW.

did anyone see ganson smiling at the shed as he walked off the pitch after the match... ganson is a disgrace and should be banned from the williows

I remember a few years ago, he was talking to my Dad while repairing his car and was really taking the mick out of Salford, cant really remember too much what he was saying but it was shortly after he ref'd us in a game at the willows

Your entitled to your opinion but I have my own view.

This is the first occasion I have ever critised a referee on this forum. All i'm pointing out is the fact we have had him at home against Catalan, Crusaders and Castleford and on each occasion we rarely seem to be able to get over the advantage line.
In my opinion his style of refereeing allows the opposition to close us down quicker than they should be able to within the rules. If you think back to all our games he officiated the opposition have been swarming all over Salford before they have had time to blink. The pressure this creates is bound to have a negative impact on errors and the game plan.

It's no secret that Steve Ganson was critisised by the club in the past and since then we never seem to perform when he's in charge of the game. So much so I'd have put my house on us losing yesterday as soon as I heard he was the referee.

When they was getting ready for their last drop kick, the fans was going mad because there players were taking ages to get back behind their line, all Ganson did was laugh at our fans.

I wouldn't blame Ganson for us losing the match as you say it was the missed tackles in the first half.

I would however state that in my opinion Ganson had a poor game and showed little if any indication of him having any idea of the rules of the game and he also a lot of inconsistency in how he controlled the whole match.

With regards our game plan, it was the players who missed the tackles and not the game plan that failed us and the plan certainly worked in the second half.

Finally if Fitzy had let that kick go dead, and believe me from where I was sitting he could have done we would have had possession instead of Castleford and they would not have been in such a good postion to score.

fitzy shouldnt have let it bounce had time to gather before it went in goal looked like he bottled out of getting hit from behind

Smiling?! A referee?!? That's an absolute disgrace!?!

Damned right he should be banned - from The Willow, from the sport, from the country.

How in God's name these scumbags referees think they have the right to walk around our game, smiling, is beyond me.

It's sick, it's wrong and it's about time something was done about it.

Yes I agree. Castleford walking through our defence unapposed 4 times in the first 15mins (one was disallowed by the ref who was supposedly biased against us) is the fault of the match official. And coneceding 5 tries from high kicks vs Crusaders while the coach sits in the stand and doesn't change anything was also Ganson's fault. Have you got an address I can write to at the RFL?

Good post that. Agree 100%.

On a lighter note, Ganson refereed us in Paris all them years ago, and we won, he won a raffle for something or other and just maybe he ended up having to see a doctor afterwards.

Salfords Achilles heel is their mental strength, time and time again we get beat by less than 10, we need somebody a phycologist to come into the club and switch the players on, physically i think they are as fit as anyone in the divison but mentally they are no where near that is why teams lean on us big time 5 mins befoe half time every week because they know most of our players heads are already in the dressing room.

Fix that and we'll challege