Wane: We were good for the win

Dom Manfredi is congratulated for his match-winning try by Lewis Tierney

The winger crossed in the corner with three minutes to go to clinch a dramatic 20-16 victory.

The try was awarded despite an apparent knock-on by Taulima Tautai at the play-the-ball which was missed by referee George Stokes and his touch-judges.

Salford coach Ian Watson was amazed and deflated the officials didn’t see the error, and felt his side deserved a share of the spoils.

Wane, though, pointed to an effort by Manfredi which was ruled out for offside from a kick - despite “being three metres onside - I’m thinking, ‘How can you get that wrong?’ It amazes me.”

And he said, over the course of the 80 minutes, he felt his side did enough to deserve the two points which maintains their winning start to the Super League campaign.

Wane said: “We showed some toughness, but we were dumb with the ball. Too many errors put us under pressure - I’ll put a little bit of that down to fatigue.

“I thought we were good for the win.

“We’ve won all three without playing well, so I am happy with the result, just not the manner we did it.”

The win, which moves Wigan top of the embryonic Super League ladder, came just five days after their 42-12 hammering by Brisbane.

Wigan looked on course for victory when Anthony Gelling’s try early in the second-half put them 16-2 ahead. But Salford roared back to lock the scores and set the stage for a grandstand finish.

Wane picked out Kiwi centre Gelling and full-back Lewis Tierney for praise and reported no fresh injury problems.

Salford coach Watson labelled the winning side as a “champion club”.

He added: “I was really disapointed with how it ended, I think we should have had a share of the points.

“The fact that the officials miss a knock on prior to the play of the ball before they score is disappointing.

“But we gave them too much respect in the first half, and you can’t do that to teams of the calibre of Wigan.

“We knew at half-time that we hadn’t played well, but we were still in the game. We just didnt have enough to come through the other side.”