THE ORIGINAL RED DEVILS

IAN WATSON | “DESTINY’S IN OUR OWN HANDS”

Salford Red Devils head coach Ian Watson praised the effort of his team in their Betfred Super League victory over Warrington Wolves.
The result took the Red Devils to within two points of the play-offs, going into Sunday’s match against Catalans Dragons at the The Salford Stadium.
Watson said: “What the lads have as their main priority is their effort and working hard for each other – having each other’s backs.
“When we’ve done that, we’ve competed against some of the best teams in the league.
“I don’t think there were any excuses from Warrington today. They even spoke about it after the London game, that they wanted a response here and thought that we’d got one over on them.
“I don’t think there’s any excuses tonight. I think we were the better team.”
He added: “Destiny’s in our own hands. If we apply ourselves like we did there, there’s no reason we can’t be in the play-offs.
“That’s what we’re saying to the players. This one and next three games are massive ones for us as a club, to decide where we want to go.
“We could’ve easily been dragged into the relegation battle, or we can now push on for that play-off spot, which is what we wanted to do from the start of the season.”
The Red Devils boss also commented on the adversity his side was battling through with injuries.
“We’ve got a few players who might be coming back in the next couple of weeks,” said Watson.
“Our medical team are working massively overtime at the moment.
“Lannon took the field today and he probably shouldn’t have.
“He’s been injected. He’s been taking pain killers and he’s not been training all week.
“To come here and put on the performance he has, defending against Blake Austin a lot of the time, he probably needs a special mention.”
The Red Devils squad has recently been bolstered by the introduction of Josh Johnson and Watson offered his thoughts on the former Salford scholarship player’s first senior appearance for the club.
“Outstanding. I thought he had a great debut,” said Watson.
“I know he came up with a little error towards the end, but before that I thought he didn’t look out of place.
“He ran really strong and he did his defence as well. He worked really hard and did everything we asked, so is a good addition for us going forward. He can be really pleased with that.”
Johnson is set to make his home debut against Catalans Dragons at the The Salford Stadium on Sunday. Tickets for the ‘Blue Light’ celebration are available HERE.

Topics