Snow joke for Reds boss

Salford fall to defeat in new stadium's Super League debut

Last updated: 4th February 2012   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Snow joke for Reds boss

Phil Veivers: Salford coach frustrated by the weather

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Salford coach Phil Veivers admitted opponents Castleford adapted better to the wintry conditions as they ground out a 24-10 win in the first Super League match at the new Salford City Stadium.

The Yorkshiremen performed superbly to score four tries on a snowbound surface, three of them into a bitterly cold wind in the second half, to give new coach Ian Millward a winning return to Super League.

"It was a bit frustrating," said Veivers, who was taking charge of his first Super League as a head coach.

"The conditions were the same for both sides but Castleford seemed to play them a little better than us.

"They controlled the ruck a lot better than we did and came through the middle pretty good. They won the arm wrestle and inched their way up field.

"They scored two tries from kicks and the other two through our right edge so we've plenty of work to do there.

"There is some optimism. We scored two nice tries, had one disallowed in the first half and had four or maybe five opportunities to score more points but we weren't clinical enough."

Reds scrum-half Matty Smith had the distinction of scoring the first try at the new stadium to give his side the lead but Castleford full-back Richard Owen scored the first of his two tries to edge the Tigers into a half-time lead.

Debutant Josh Griffin and Adam Milner also scored tries for the visitors, with Kirk Dixon kicking four goals from as many attempts.

Composure

"I thought our back three were very strong and both our halves showed a lot of composure in the second half," said Millward.

"It was a nice way to start, they've worked very hard in pre-season. I'm really pleased. I thought our attitude was fantastic. Our kick-chase was very strong and the pressure on the kicker was very strong.

"They were difficult conditions for both teams and it was quite incredible if you look at some of movement of the ball at times."

The Reds suffered an early blow when hooker Wayne Godwin went off just eight minutes into the game with a rib injury and he was tonight taken to hospital for checks.

Stuart Howarth, one of five new signings, proved an able deputy but, too, was forced off with concussion 14 minutes from the end.

"It doesn't help when you lose two hookers in the game," added Veivers. "It does disrupt what you can do with the ball. Stuart was going real good too."

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