I totally agree with you.
Tit for tat penalties to show who is boss,then anything goes later.
This type of officiating went out with Sgt Mjr Eric Clay,this fellow Hick is not good enough,nor fit enough!

Both teams were heavily penalised in the 1st half around the play the ball. Don't know what the penalty count was but must have been high at half time. Hicks did his best to spoil the game.

Second half what cost us was stupid penalties when we had possession. Tompkins for dissent when we had the ball? And then BMM running and obstructing Currie after playing the ball.

Hicks was poor for both teams and I think he'll be embarrassed when he watches back some of his decisions. Far too many harsh penalties in the opening 20 minutes. OK a ref may want to show who's boss but don't just penalise teams for the sake of it. This poor standard of refereeing becomes very predictable and you just know a penalty is coming for you or against you depending on which team was awarded the previous one or two. When you can predict this accurately you know the ref's losing the plot. The standard of SL ref's in general is second rate compared to the NRL. Time to invest in some Aussie ref's to help improve the standard of SL officiating I think.

That display again shows were up there with the top teams and once we gain that experience as a team we'll come on top of these games.
just hope Ian and Tim keep the lads heads up and momentum going after two very close defeats on the bounce.

I disagree about the discipline, Tompkins penalty for swearing at the ref when we have the ball is inexcusable.
Then in the driving seat at 30-12 Murdoch Masila getting involved and Carneys brain fart was the turning point.

We cannot keep giving such leads away and letting teams back into, we got away with it against Widnes but should've had the win sown up last night with 10minutes to go.

Another point there's no one more than me who wants to see Niall in the starting 17, as we know what he's capable of.
But in these games playing against big mobile packs can we afford to keep shoe horning him and Tompkins into the side.
The forwards looked dead on their feet in the last twenty and having that extra interchange would've helped that.
Unfortunately with Jones playing in the pack we don't have the luxury of bringing Niall on and moving someone from the back line, just my thoughts.

I thought as much as the ill discipline our right edge defence looked pretty poor at times, there was certain times last night it was like we were watching Salford circa 2013, standing off and waiting for the attacker to build up a head of steam at the line.

I'm amazed that it's not been mentioned before but it's pretty clear to me we are playing GOB at the back as an extra pivot as our hookers are just tacklers, if we had one who was more creative we would have that extra pivot in a position where a pivot can create mayhem.

I agree with all the comments made, discipline let us down but lets put the game into perspective, this is the best looking entertaining Salford side I have watched in years, one I am happy to pay to watch. We have structure, options & pace, lets concentrate on the good instead of focusing on the negatives, Warrington are my tip & we ran them close, robbed in the Wigan game all could have been so different.

I was gutted last night & could not sleep but I was proud of everyone of our players who were dead on their feet at the end having given there all.

Yeah I'm with you on this one. It's very easy to just look at the negatives after losing a match. This is the best Salford team I've watched in many years and there's a long way to go in the season yet. We're certainly not going to be treading water at the bottom of the league come the split.

I concur redgunner, it's easy to be despondent when we lost the game in the way we did but there are far more positives and this should be embraced going forward.

We will only improve and with the addition of a couple of key players we will be a very difficult team to beat.

As a Wire fan I have to say I think you look impressive, and playing like a team for the first time in an age. Genuinely think you are building for the future on very solid foundations. Good to see GoB go well, I always had a soft spot for him.

Fwiw the pen count at ht was 6-4 Salford I think, ft 12-10 Salford.

It's tough to take that loss after being in such a strong position, but if this was the same team as last season Warrington would have been out of sight before half time. Plenty of positives to take from that performance despite the loss.

We've been unlucky to lose 2 out of 3 games and the league table doesn't reflect how well we've played. With Hauraki and Vidot due back this team is heading in the right direction.