Salford Red Devils coach Ian Watson disappointed with loss to Wigan Warriors

Joe Greenwood is congratulated on his try against Salford

The Red Devils produced a rousing second half display to lead 26-24 but could not see the contest out after Hardaker's late strike.

Watson said: "I'm massively disappointed. We had the performance at Warrington and when you want to turn the pressure up on the teams above you...we inflicted the defeat on ourselves really.

"When you think how we started the game and kicking the ball out twice on the full which gave them field position and they get a 14-0 lead. To be honest I thought we were all over the place in the first half.

"We come in at half time at 14-6 and probably happy to go in at that score to be fair, we could regroup.

"In the second half we got ourselves in a position to win the game and five minutes out we should be seeing the match out from there but errors have come and bitten us again.

"It would have been a great Easter if we could have picked off Warrington and Wigan which would see us competing at the top end of the table, which is where we want to be.

"We now have an important run of fixtures, starting with London next week, and we need to approach that game like we did at Warrington where we complete our sets and be patient in attack and build pressure on teams."