Brian Smith not too downcast despite Wakefield's 15th straight defeat
Last Updated: 15/06/15 3:50pm
Brian Smith was unable to halt Wakefield's poor run in his first game in charge but saw positives from their 24-16 home defeat against Salford.
Smith took charge of the Wildcats for the first time but his return to the Super League coaching ranks ended with them suffering a 15th straight defeat, leaving them bottom of the table and eight points adrift of 11th-placed Hull KR.
Tries from skipper Danny Kirmond, loose forward Daniel Smith and former Leeds prop Ian Kirke kept Wakefield in the game but they lacked the creativity to make the most of Salford's indiscipline.
"There wasn't much in the game," said Smith, who watched last week's 58-16 home defeat by Leeds before officially taking up the reins. "It was a hard-fought game.
"Our guys did a good job in terms of gritting their teeth and playing in what proved to be really tough conditions. The weather made the field a bit greasy and the ball was definitely difficult to deal with at times.
"But it was more to do with the referee's determination of 10 metres today. We just couldn't come to terms with the fact that there were almost zero quick play-the-balls today.
"We got significant improvement in our stick in the tackle - when we made contact with them we weren't bouncing away.
"There is still plenty to work on and there were still some disappointing aspects, but by and large it was a solid improvement on last week."
There was a sense of relief for Red Devils coach Iestyn Harris as they claimed a first Super League win since Easter Monday to keep their hopes of a top-eight place alive.
"It was a massive banana skin against a team with a new coach so to get that win is really important for us going into the back end of the year," Harris said.
"The players have just sung their song but half of them had forgot the words, it has been that long. There was a bit of agitation about us today which was natural.
"It was a painfully slow game - as slow as I've seen for a while - and it could have been a very frustrating afternoon for us, I thought we showed lot of resilience against a team we knew would turn up with lots of energy under their new coach.
"We knew it going to be a challenge for us but we always felt comfortable that we had enough in the game in the second half and defensively we were strong when we needed to be.
"It was a slow ruck and a terrible surface and there was a high penalty count when it didn't need to be. We knew we would have to grind it out."
