Will unlock it on the hooter.

Big missed opportunity. Whats the point having 2 seperate threads, seriously?

After making good progress do you think this will be a major set back or do you think we have shown enough strength of character this season to get back on track?

We won the second half...err...

This season is starting to look like last season - a few great performances, a few good ones, plenty of mediocre efforts and too many dire ones. Suspect the end result will be the same.

Why two threads? People moaned about having to wade through the in-game stuff to get to the post-match discussion.

always was going to be a tough one even before Purtell pulled out, so no surprise that Salford turned it on against Sykes. Salford go above on points difference, I was hoping they would at least keep the score tight to stop that happening.

We were bad, but weve seen much worse than that.

Ateotd, Salford wont play much better than that this season, purtell pulled out and chev & bj had to go off. Bitterly disappointed with the result, but won't get down about the season as a whole yet.

No me either, we probably got a bit ahead of ourselves after last week and more than likley needed this as a remeinder that there will be no easy games. Got to pick ourselves up a dust ourselves off and get back to the same kind of performances we have seen for the past month -today.

Team selection didnt help. Theres no way Bateman should have been benched, it takes away a chunk of attacking threat on the left side and a huge defensive contribution too. If Sykes was playing then he should have remained at 6 and Sammut on bench with Walker to RC.

Agreed.

If walker and purtell are both out then whitehead centre, elima Langley Bateman back row.

Sykes and kp can't be a partnership against Hull, they'll be ripped apart.

Willie Manu has always destroyed Sykes, at least Yeaman isn't playing. i'd move Elima onto right, Whithead to left. Bateman to 13 and Langley to prop or bench.

This.

Massive defeat this. Win it would have been 3 in a row and given massive confidence going to Hull next week and then obviously the derby. NOw we're going to an in form Hull team at Hull on back of a defeat. Difficult ask and then the derby.

To save time i'm going to copy what i put on another thread.

Potter has to take 100% of the blame. To drop a young player who has probably been one of your best to the bench, than let a senior player walk straight back into the starting line up stinks IMO

Is it a coincidence? No, everytime Langley plays we lose ALL our momentum with that stupid inside ball. Bateman runs at angles and causes problems.

And don't even get me started on Karl Pryce & Sykes.

Potter should take 0% of the blame..
We lost because we dropped the ball so many times, unforced, at times most of those players never would. Cant blame him for that.
We bombed 3/4 good chances/positions with dropped ball and gifted them 3/4 tries in the same way.

Just got back, I know he went off injured but can someone tell what on earth Chev Walker brings to the team, he constantly drops the ball and let's people walk through him. I don't understand why Bateman was benched, on form he should have been in and those trying to get their place back should work for it!! Langley got MoM and I'm puzzled as to why.

Dumb rugby from start to finish. Bombed chances, gift wrapped tries for Salford, our legendary collapsing defence back. Poor.

Two steps back this week. Where has the "team" from the last few weeks gone?

Salford showed more urgency, more line speed and controlled the ruck better than we did. We also made far too many ball handling errors to give ourselves a chance of coming back. Disappointing but not entirely surprising, the response to this will be the true test. Manase and Addy were probably our best players today. We're in trouble if neither BJ or Gale are fit for next week.

What happened to BJ? Not that it made any difference, we were getting d****d before he went off.

Hamstring injury.

Well, tbh Salford played to the old Saints game plan of wang it and hope. And today that paid off and got them the win.

We didn't help ourselves with the dreadful ball retention we had today as well as the indiscipline that began to creep back into the side after the last few weeks were it seemed we were improving in that area.

I'd also add the loss of Jeffries didn't help matters as it then meant we played a lot of the game without a half decent kicking game and tbf our wins this season have come on the back of a strong kicking game. Without we lacked the punch to go the extra mile and get the score board working. If we're neither Jeffries or Gale is fit going up against Hull and Leeds then I can't see us coming away with any points from those games.

We criminally ignored the flanks today, Crookes, one of our best and most in-form players, had a very quiet game, mainly because he was starved of the ball. Our right hand wing had it's defensive frailties exposed many times today for the same reasons that could be levelled against it when that combination was Sykes and Sherrife. Sykes with a decent winger isn't a bad option for centre, Pryce with a decent centre isn't a bad option for a winger. But you can't play them as a partnership because they are lacking in certain areas (mainly defence and positioning) and a lot of those areas over lap leading to a weakness in the defence which Salford exploited.

Walker, before being sub'd was a revolving door in defence. I think someone else made a comment about a senior player going back into the side replacing an inform young lad being a bad decision and I agree. I understand what will likely have been MP's decision behind the swap, that being he doesn't want to burn Bateman out as a player. After all, the lad is still young and developing. However with that I'd also say that how beneficial to his development is dropping him from the starting line up when he's coming into some good form? With Elima back next week, I'd hope to see Walker dropped from the side because, given the positions he plays in, we do have cover and can drop under performing players. I know that's a rarity for us this season, so I hope MP takes advantage of it.

I agree with a lot of what's already been said. This week I feared that our run of decent performances would be coming to a close, I don't think we showed the enthusiasm needed today, Salford were much more "up for it" consistently making yards forward, dominating the collision and looking well organised off the back of it. In defence they stifled us around the ruck and their line speed was excellent.

In contrast we looked less motivated, our service away from the ruck was very slow so the backs never got any decent ball. When we were attacking the Salford line we looked short of organisation, even with Jeffries on the field. This was disappointing considering Sammut was back and the playing conditions were perfect.

In defence our right side was very poor and like everyone else was baffled to see Walker come into the side ahead of Bateman. Thought Diskin had a mare today.

We had chances to come back into it in the second half but spurned them. Our discipline went to pot but we dragged Salford down to our level by the end.

Back to basics this week!

Salford have already played better than that this season. I thought they put in a good performance but didn't have to work too hard to get the win. Moon looked quality for them. The double wedge move worked every time it seemed.

Everything seemed to go against Bradford though. In first few sets we sent the ball wide early and as soon as it go to 2nd rower it stopped. if you going to ship it early at least try and get it to centres.

Whitehead kicking? Poor.

A real disappointing performance and an all too familiar feeling.

Langley back and Bateman to bench was just dumb in my book.

Thought langley worked hard enough but his inability to pass the ball, ever, is maddening sometimes.

The main selection blooper was Walker in for Bateman. Chev had a game to forget with some crucial missed tackles and mistakes.

Not all doom and gloom for me, it certainly wasn't great but there was a massive over-reaction at the ground. We bombed several chances, gifted Salford tries and didn't get the bounce of the ball all day. Just one of those days, but I do expect a better performance next week.

That's what's so annoying. If we'd played with half as much cohesion as in recent weeks we had a great chance of winning.

Was the pass to Pryce really that forward? We've had plenty of those allowed against us that have led to tries?

The bounce of the ball that went behind Crookes was a killer.

Despite our bad luck we contributed to our own downfall massively.

Burgess two offloads that went straight to Salford that led to tries were big killers.

Agree. I just don't like langley as anything other than a prop. When he's involved in a move 99% of the time the ball stops with him and it's so disheartening to watch.