MARCH has not even ended yet, but the green shoots of Saints' spring recovery were trampled on by a resolute Salford side who emerged 22-14 victors at the AJ Bell Stadium.

Although credit goes to Salford, who tucked another high profile scalp into their belts and climb to third in Super League, Saints were altogether too patchy over the the course of the game but especially in the opening 40.

Their failure of the pack to match Salford's aggression early on or offer anything with the ball in the first half, bar a range of speculative kicks, was a concern.

Although some of that lack of attacking threat could be placed at the door of losing Theo Fages with a head knock barely a minute into the game, the subsequent general lack of ideas of how to unlock the admittedly industrious and tight Salford defence was worrying.

Invariably when teams don't use their attacking sets prudently; fail to turn the screw, ask questions or score they get burned at the other end of the field.

Salford had an abundance of ideas, pivots in Rob Lui, Michael Dobson and then Todd Carney, well supported by Gareth O'Brien from full back, but essentially they won it with their industry and big defence.

And Saints had to be on their mettle to foil O'Brien inches from the line and then forcing line-bound George Griffin to drop the ball over the whitewash.

Dobson opened the scoring with a penalty, and with their big men getting them on the front foot and winning the territory battle.

Saints' attack drew blank for the first half and maybe led to odd plays, like skipper Jon Wilkin kicking wide to touch on play two.

That proved costly at the other end and after Percival was penalised for running into one of his own players, Salford stretched their lead when Craig Kopczak collected Kriss Brining's suspiciously forward pass to barge over.

Dobson's conversion made it 8-0 at the break and Saints needed a vigorous response.

But instead they conceded the softest of tries they have conceded for a good while within three minutes of the restart.

Todd Carney's offload after soft contact from two props was backed up by Mark Flanagan who pulled Saints defence out of shape enough for Kopczak to storm through a gaping hole with Dobson backing up for the try.

O'Brien kicked the conversion for a 14-0 lead.

Saints had re-jiggled their side in the second half, moving Lomax to six and dropping Tommy Makinson back to full back.

It was an attempt to ask more questions, and with Alex Walmsley firing up and James Roby causing problems directly from dummy half Saints got a toe-hold.

In his second carry of the set, Walmsley charged over from close range on 51 minutes.

Percival tagged on the goal to make it 14-6 and, although Saints pressed maintained the pressure, Wilkin and Walmsley were both held up over the line by Salford's defence.

Then Morgan was hauled down by Flanagan and then the same player was tackled in the corner by Lui.

Luke Douglas was stopped short, but Lomax's cut-out pass for Morgan to cross in the corner to cut the gap to four points.

Salford tagged on a penalty after Roby was penalised for holding on to Dobson's legs.

Back Saints came and after Roby had won a repeat set with a grubber that forced a drop out and then penalty a scrappy end to the set saw McCarthy- Scarsbrook given offside chasing Smith's kick.

Saints chased the game with their hosts down to 12 men after Lui was sin-binned for preventing a quick restart, but they could not create the space on either edge to make it count with Percival's kick on the last going dead.

But a howler from Morgan, who failed to collect a bobbling kick, allowed Dobson to grab his second try.

That was it, and even though Lomax scored a belting try two minutes from time, after good hands and support play on the left, it was too little too late.

In isolation a defeat against a robust Salford side that has beaten Castleford this year would not be so grave, but in the context of Saints' attempts to dig themselves out of their early season hole after those three losses in a row this was another step backwards.

Any confidence bubble being built ahead of the tough Easter programme has been pricked, Saints now have to find some big displays in April to stay within touching distance of the leaders.