Wellens' reaction to Saints defeat, Mark Percival's red card

Despite being down to 12 men for the last 35 minutes when Mark Percival was sent off, Wellens felt his side should have wrapped the game up when they took a 20-6 lead with 20 minutes to play.

But ultimately they were made to pay for the errors that totted up through the game and gave the Red Devils the opportunity to pile on pressure and then points, culminating in the late winner.

Wellens said: “I am obviously disappointed with the result, particularly after the way we started the game. “I thought we were very dominant in the opening exchanges and failed to capitalise on that really, because 20 minutes we just got a little bit ill-disciplined as we didn't have the same ruthlessness about us and we were a little bit casual at times.

“Salford are a team who have got good players who can hurt you if you go down that route.”

Saints started well with unconverted tries from Jack Welsby and Lewis Dodd, before a failure to deal with the restart kick saw a 10-minute period of pressure from which Deon Cross grabbed his first on the wing.

“I thought when we were in the in the ascendancy early on there looked like there was only one team ever going to win the game,” Wellens said.

“But we got a little bit casual at times and then never really seemed to recover from that moment.

“I thought we had them right where we needed them, but there were small things in the game that became big things if you don’t nail them.

“Balls bouncing on last plays and not quite dealing with that, not quite collecting a kick off after you scored.

“They may only seem like minor things, but off the back of that you end up defending your line for three or four sets and momentum shifts.

"Then and all of a sudden you're in a different type of game than the one that you've worked so hard to create for 20 minutes, so that's a bit of a lesson for us moving forward.”

Percival scored Saints’ third and then Lewis Dodd dashed in for his second despite being numerically disadvantaged to make it 20-6.

Wellens said: “I think we should have gone on and won the game from that point on and I don't want to take away anything from Salford.

“They came here and put a shift in and got the rewards.

“But I feel that we should have done it because I know that these guys have done it in the past and we need to work hard and we need to be better there because ultimately the way the game is going, invariably you're going to have to learn how to defend down to 12 men at times.

“Obviously, like all teams, you don't want to do it that often, but we're all going to be faced with that challenge in the course of the year.”

Asked about his initial thoughts on the Percival red card, Wellens said: “It's probably one of those that I need to properly look at it in more detail.

“However, like I said with Konrad last week, we just have to accept that the game is going down a route.

“My only thing would be is consistency. If that's a red card, it's got to be a red card all the time. I feel like we're going from week-to-week and no one really knows what's going on.

“So, if that's a red card, I can sit here as a coach and accept it, but it's got to be a red card next week, the week after and the week after that no matter what kit you are wearing.

“We lost the game tonight because we deserved to lose the game.

“But I think there's a frustration amongst a lot of teams and a lot of coaches that we just seem to lack a bit of consistency at times.

“The circumstances and the changes in the game, is difficult for everybody, administrators, officials, fans, coaches, players, everybody.

“We're all challenged with having to change and the evidence of that is there tonight. That's a red card for Mark Percival, which we have to accept.

“And again, we're constantly learning again week-to-week around the new changes and I can't sit here as a coach - because we've lost the game- and react emotionally or be frustrated because a bloke has been sent off.

“I feel that where we got ourselves in that game we should have won that game despite being down to 12 men.”

It was Saints’ first home defeat against Salford since 1980, and it was a loss that saw the players shuffle off disappointed at the end.

Wellens said: “What I've got to say about the playing group is that they're disappointed in there because they didn’t go on and win the game and I can't fault them in terms of effort.

“You can see how much they're turning up for each other and how hard they are working.

“But we've missed a couple of tackles there - it's not the fact that they are getting out on the outside of us with numbers and the numerical advantage told. We just didn't come up with the right plays when we needed. And again, that's another learn for us moving forward.”

Wellens gave an update on Alex Walmsley, who limped off on 24 minutes but only returned for the closing moments.

Wellens said: “Alex has had a bit of tight calves during the during the course of the week, obviously he started the game but I was a bit 50/50 on whether we could get him back out there because I wasn't keen on taking risks.

“Obviously, then, we fell behind and we threw Alex back out there to see if we could make something happen, but it wasn't to be. But I think we've come through the game relatively unscathed.”