McRae's men were stunned and smashed into submission by a plucky set of part-timers and a schoolboy scrum-half Greg McNally, who scored a hat-trick of tries.
This performance had been coming and Reds left the Recreation Ground with their pride wounded and humbled.
McRae admitted this performance from a club with Super League aspirations was not up to scratch.
Ironically former Salford star Gary Broadbent played out of his skin alongside 17-year-old McNally to help guide Haven to a deserved victory.
Mistakes
McRae now waits to see how his team respond.
He said: "I am very disappointed to lose, we were expecting a hard game and we got it.
"We made mistakes, we took the wrong option at times and we were never in control."
Adam Sidlow's first try for Salford spared Reds' blushes at the break and gave them a flattering 18-16 lead.
Haven naturally raised their game and their young scrum half McNally rocked Reds with a slick two-try blast.
Craig Stapleton had given Salford the lead with an early try and there was a second from Robbie Paul but a far better performance was expected from the visitors.
The Reds were just not gelling as a team and adding to their worries, Ian Sibbit was an early casualty with a knee injury.
Haven recently leaked 106 points at Wigan but they more than matched Salford whose hopes of a second-half revival were shattered when man-of-the-match McNally completed his hat-trick to give his side a 24-18 lead.
Salford spent long periods bombarding the Whitehaven try line but time after time they were repelled by the Cumbrians.
Paul White eventually reduced the deficit but this was Whitehaven's night.
The Salford players trooped off with their heads down, they knew things had gone badly wrong.
Evergreen rockers Status Quo will soon be gracing the Recreation Ground in a sell-out concert.
Hopefully they will be far more in tune than the Reds were last night. Tweet
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Shocking! Are Whitehaven that good at home? Salford need to gel and exhibit some esprit de corps and then go and win decisively in their next match.Come on Reds ,show the doubters what you are made of!Torred
A poor performance against a keen but not overly tallented team. Salford could not get into 2nd gear and some very simple mistakes proved very costly. Also big question mark abour the standard of the French referee, give the reds very little
Anyone who has seen Salford this season will have been able to tell you that a result like this was always coming. One or two results apart (Leigh away, for example) we've been unconvincing all season. Shaun McRae is quite clearly not the man for Salford, I'm afraid.
Fair play last night to Whitehaven..
But Salford City Reds need to improve or else we will be potless at the end of this season.
Last nights performance was simply "NOT GOOD ENOUGH"
Come on coach McRae kick some butts this week....
From the very first minutes of the second half, you know it was going to end in defeat. Too many handling errors for a start.
Before the game, wwere warned that 'Haven' would try and bully Salford and that is excactly what happened. Why the team didn't seem to heed this is beyond me.
Salford have to change their mental attitude in this division and accept that all games will be cup finals to their opponents and stop thinking it will be a cakewalk!
A little bit of fine tuning is all thats needed.
So come on REDS, lift yourselves and get back to winning ways...and quick.
THATS IT ABOUT TIME THE BOSS CHANGED THE TEAM GIVE RATCHFORD A START ROBBIE PAUL JUST ISNT DOING THE JOB ALSO CAN SOMEBODY TELL M ALKER TO SYOP KICKING FROM DUMMY HALF
Another disappointment. Please dont become the Manchester City of the Rugby League.
THE ONLY GOOD THING IS THAT SHEFFIELD EAGLES HAVE BEATEN HALIX TONIGHT...
AND WE STILL REMAIN TOP OF THE NL1...
Co-Operative National League One
Team P W D L F A Pts
Salford City Reds 8 5 2 1 236 140 20
Halifax 8 6 0 2 316 214 19
Sheffield 8 4 1 3 212 190 16
Celtic Crusaders 7 4 0 3 128 155 13
Leigh 7 3 0 4 150 164 11
Batley 7 3 0 4 159 198 11
Whitehaven 8 3 0 5 168 205 10
Widnes * 7 5 1 1 179 139 9
Featherstone 7 2 0 5 144 185 9
Dewsbury 7 0 0 7 132 234 3
* Widnes deducted nine points for entering administration
[Games to played this weekend]
Saturday, 31 May 2008
Celtic Crusaders v Batley, 17:30
Sunday, 01 June 2008
Dewsbury v Leigh, 15:00
Featherstone v Widnes, 18:00
Seems its still the same old Salford. To complacent. No matter who coaches them they seem to think the opposition should hold back. Real world, they want to win, WHY NOT TRY THE FIGHTING SPIRIT SOMETIME. You never know you may win away convincingly
robbie paul was a good player.its time to rebuild with players who will be in the side in the future. robbie should keep now to commentry on tv