It will be interesting to see what the match review panel picks up from this week's games.

My assessment:

Ratchford at fullback for the foreseeable future.
I love Matty but if he was on the pitch then Salford would've walked right passed him imo whereas Ratchford stopped the breaks and defended superbly. He also links in better in attack. Russell would do well off the bench and if injuries strike he's there to earn his place.

Penny was class. He's now a well-rounded player and hasn't lost his pace. That try-saver was phenomenal!

Joel got sucked in too much but he captained the side well and looks determined to lift a trophy this year.

Atkins and Evans were their usual selves, Atkins with the big hits and Evans with the finishing. Need to avoid that touchline a bit better though and Atkins needs to work on his timing.

GOB was quiet. His kicking was a bit spotty but other than that he did well.

Myler was flourishing. He's determined to improve from last year and looked hungry out there.

Hill and Sims did well. Salford fans may be spouting "we dominated their forwards" but truth is they were dirty and tried to wind them up. They both stayed classy and let the score do the talking.

Clark was quiet also. He linked up well with GOB, Myler and Ratch though and it was a good, solid debut. Him and Higham on the pitch together for the last 20 minutes could win us a good few games.

Laithwaite and Currie were brilliant. Both ran the ball in well and defended well.

Westwood played well and made good yards until he let the Salford lads get to him and went AWOL.

Higham was brilliant. With someone of that class and skill on your bench you aren't going to go far wrong.

Rest of the bench went well, Harrison made good yards when he was on and so did Asotasi. Wheeler did well when he came on too and he looks determined to prove his doubters wrong.

All-round great performance. Our defence was the highlight, such a shame we conceded our first points this calendar year but it's testament to our defence that they could only score in the corners, the first when we were down to 12 men.

Bring on Hull FC!

Check the average attendance from last few years. We seem to have more " fair weather fans" than the cup kings Warrington.

that's... What I said?

Edit: actually no, I didn't. I didn't even refer to exact attendances..

Saints average attendance always takes a boost from Wigan and from generally RLs largest travelling supported team Warrington.
This flatters Saints yearly averages. Throughout much of the last season's at Knowsley Road many home games fell below 8000 and to be honestly who wouldn't expect that in the shat hole conditions it had.
Saints had another boost to attendances this weekend be allowing 3000 + event guests who went to Langtree park in the day to attend the evening game too.
All in all that puts the overall average attendance up when revenues are not, one of the reasons that Warrington make a profit at year end but Saints don't.

Ouch, take that Saints fans

With the number of head shots that Salford made they could be taking a mini-bus full to Red Hall.

Are you seriously trying to suggest Warrington have the largest away support?

Although the rest of your post is really interesting particularly the bit about boosting the attendance this week by allowing "3000+ event guests" into the game for free. Its one hell of a coincidence that Widnes did exactly the same thing the day before!

He still comes across as ball greedy at times to me and he tries too much to go on the outside, and a lot of the time he gets put into touch. There was a discussion at the game about whether TS should look to maybe get Atkins bulked up and get him in the pack, ala Benny Westwood as he kept doing the same when he came over from Wakefield.

As for Penny, I do hope this is the start of a long run in the team for him. It will shut a fair few people up, though no doubt even after a great performance yesterday, if he even concedes 1 try against Hull on Friday, people will be calling for him to be dropped and start calling him crap. Very fickle bunch are Warrington fans, especially when it came to the likes of Jon Clarke, Mike Wainwright & Chris Riley.

That's wrong. Saints actually did a 'Lads and Dads' initiative at £10 a throw. They do it for the games where the crowd is affected by the lack of away fans.

Yes, and the West stand at the HJ is always empty when Wigan, Saints, Widnes, Leeds, etc, come to town too ......

I was being sarcastic. Although I'm looking forward to Rubber Duck coming up with some cock and bull story to try and make out that Saints did let 3000 in for free.

I know you were, it was the Duck I was pointing it out to. Should have put it on his post. He's mixing up his teams.
Two more 5 figure gates today at HKR and Cas. Smallest gate of the weekend just over 7,700 at Huddersfield.

Hmmm, that could be it. Thanks.
As to our away support. Yes our support is generally the largest travelling support in SL.
Only specific near graphical location Derbys the likes of Saints v Pies, Hull v Hull KR and Leeds v Bradford do have greater numbers.
Across the RL spectrum, away teams have bumper crowds when they host Warrington.
That includes the size of fans at the Magic and in France.

We do travel quite well..

Looking at GF's when we've been there, both Wigan and Leeds have a greater away following than us - even if it is for the one match !

Naturally. They've had more success!

Is there a 'supporters turning up' trophy?

If there was Yed and it was judged by the Perpignan press, I think they would crown us Championes.

I seem to remember when the HJ first opened & Wigan turned up mob handed there were a lot of their supporters who couldn't get in & vowed never to bother again. Our away end is not the biggest in the league & i would be reluctant to travel if i thought i might not get in. There is much more room for visiting fans at Wigan, Saints, Huddersfield & Hull.

With the exception of Saints the others are built for Football hence their capacity being greater. With the exception of Saints and Wigan, the away end at the HJ is generally empty anyway.

Made up with the result, was unable to make it this week but listened to it on the radio, we seemed to cope well with their bullying tactics and as much as Paterson tried he couldn't get Sims to react which is a good sign. The indiscipline from Salford is a worry with late shots to half backs and the amount of high shots was out of order.
I think Salford will have a fair few banned this season with the likes of Hauraki, Paterson and Hock.
Well done Penny he seemed to have a great game.

Penny did IW.
He dealt with high kicks and tackling was great.
Atkins needs to up his pass timing to put this kid into half a gap.

Half a gap is all he needs!

Good to hear RD, glad the lad is getting a second chance and is taking it with both hands.

What gripes at me is what I've said before on here.
A wingers attack is only as good as his centre's last pass.
Fa'afili was almost a limpet with speed but his finishing record was up there with all the best wingers in the modern SL age.
He was effective because Gleeson in size and timing of his passing out right was the best in the league.
In many cases Gleeson had set him Henry up so well my granny could have scored it.

Atkins has the size and strength but he doesn't have that timing ability to put in a sweet pass.

Don't get me wrong I like him being greedy and taking on a half gap but not over and over.

One occasion yesterday he ran so wide, 1st tackle I think, he had Penny rubbing shoulders with the linesman and got us bungled into touch.
It was the poorest play we had done all game. It wasn't even fare to call it school boy errors, the kids are better than that.
Only Myler kicking the ball into Locke's hands comes close to the poor play made.