Smith rues poor discipline

Warrington head coach Tony Smith says his team came out second best against Salford because they made more errors and were not disciplined enough.

The Wolves suffered their third straight league defeat as the Red Devils cruised to a 24-14 victory at the AJ Bell Stadium.

“Whoever was going to settle down and come up with the least errors and least penalties was going to win,” Smith said.

“That’s usually the remedy at this time of the year and the sort of formula that works.”

Warrington lost a number of players earlier in the day which wasn’t ideal preparation, according to Smith.

“Dom [Crosby] pulled out because he’s been holding his missus’ hand in labour in all night,” he added.

“Matty Russell’s back was in spasms about lunch-time so Jack Johnson got a call after training with Rochdale this morning, thinking he was going to be playing tomorrow.”

Warrington might still be without a Super League win after three rounds, but Smith isn’t taking too much notice.

“I don’t think you can determine who’s going to win the competition and who’s going to come last in the competition during the first few weeks,” he said.

“We’re not sitting where we’d like to sit but it’s where you are after round 23 that really counts so we’ll be looking at that more closely.”

The Wolves have been without a number of players for the opening few matches, including Chris Hill, but Smith is confident some will return relatively soon.

“Hilly will be getting close, Toby King’s close, George King will be getting close,” he said.

“Stefan Ratchford should be back in the next couple of weeks after that.

“Kev Penny won’t be far off as well.”

Despite the result Smith thought Matty Blythe put in a good performance considering the amount of recent games he has played for the club.

“I thought Matty Blythe did well,” he said.

“Considering he hadn’t played in our colours for a long time I thought he was really good when he came on.”