St Helens 46 Salford City Reds 12

REDS were beaten out of sight and earned a verbal blast from angry coach Karl Harrison for running out at Knowsley Road with what he termed a "soft mentality''.

By doing so, Harrison admitted his team got what they deserved - defeat clearly hurt and disappointed the big man.

Self-enforced errors saw Saints leading 36-0 at the break - they ripped Reds to shreds with some champagne rugby.

Jamie Lyon roared in for two tries and led the rout.

A dismayed Harrison told MEN Sport: "Some of my players just didn't show up - I was very disappointed with some individual performances.

''But if you turn up at a place like Saints and show such a soft mentality then that's what you are going to get.

''We have done a lot of work on our defensive structure but it was ripped apart and I find that very disappointing.

''Saints' start was sensational - they would have beaten most teams but we contributed to it.

''I thought young Darren Bamford did very well for us when he came on - I possibly should have started him.

''Captain Malcolm Alker again did everything for the cause - he even got back from the scrum to gather the ball after Saints had kicked - this summed him up, but generally we were very disappointing.''

Alker grabbed a consolation try for Salford along with Simon Baldwin but it was a bad night for the Reds in all aspects of play. Gareth Haggerty left Knowsley Road with a suspected broken arm.

Saints welcomed back Sean Long and Paul Sculthorpe from injury and they ran riot.

Speculation is rife that Sculthorpe could be a target for Wigan to replace Rugby Union-bound Andrew Farrell - the Saints ace laughed off such suggestions saying he'd be lynched if he was to join the Warriors. Tweet