As Salford fans thats whats so frustrating saints were doing the same as us but nothing given against them, i have always said the small teams in the premier league dont get penalties at the stretford end, so for me until we are one of the so called big 6 we just have to put up with it. Just as a example the 2 times the linesman came on tonight the ref awarded a penalty to saints even though bentham saw nothing in either tackle, last week Kevin brown blatantly punched a salford player off the ball which the liner spotted he then went on the pitch only to be told by James child! to get off!!!!

It was actually 3 times the touch judges came on to correct Bentham. But they were right on all three and the game would have gone better if Bentham would have taken a bath and let them do it all.

Phil Kinsella did the commentary on Radio Manchester, and he was scathing in his appraisal of Benthams refereeing performance.



Kinsella is usually straight down the line, so I'm guessing that Bentham had a poor game.

1 out of the 3 maybe, but you dont get my point we are playing under different rules each week sometimes even in the same game the inconsistency at the moment is a absolute joke. Mr Bentham missed a forward pass last week that perhaps won the challenge cup and then the liner missing the fact the ball came off the wigan player before going into touch i mean these are basic basic errors,this particular referee should be relegated as he is nowhere near super league standard. I really feel for the reds players and coach tonight they gave it there all and i honestly believe saints were there for the taking and with a referee that was consistent you just never know.

Shame then they didn't bother to come on correct the Makinson try that was in touch and the two knock-ons that led up to Meli's.

a 9-2 penalty count in the first half .. when both sides were equally undisciplined.

Phil Bentham, legend. making James Child look professional.

the Wembley appearance has gone to his head , next thing you know he'll be toppling grannies at taxi ranks ?,,

Our lack of discipline has been awful all season. Even so, I thought we were harshly treated last night. It's not the first time we've been subjected to one sided penalty counts and dodgy decisions BUT we don't help ourselves by some of the silly mistakes we make.

Well done to the Team for hanging in there and keeping the score to a reasonable margin given the circumstances. I'm sure we can finish on a high next week.

The point is tho Rooted Red that saints were making silly errors too but they were constantly allowed second and third chances, being handed possession by the ref. In the first 10 minutes we looked the better side scoring an excellent try and having a couple of half chances. It was at that point that Mr Bentham decided we had played enough rugby and he was going to be the influential factor in the game.

As for our indiscipline, we are no worse than any other super league team but get punished more. That is not our fault. It is incredibly difficult as a player to be perfect when the rules are clearly flouted by others. It is natural for players to do what others get away with. You work to the refs tolerance, problem is when it comes to our players they have zero tolerance and apply the rules to the letter while other players enjoy leniency.

But to be fair he did disallow a perfectly good try scored by Jammer. There was nothing wrong with that at all.



It was the touch judge who signalled the Makinson try was in. It was a mass of bodies so I couldn't tell whether it was in or out. And as for the Meli try that was at the far end and I couldn't see it really as I was in the East Stand. It looked like a right shambles though if that was the one where we kicked across field twice?

Bentham had a poor game last night. He could and should have penalised Salford a lot more. Your disipline last night was awful. How you can say he favoured us is beyond belief I think we got a couple of decisions go our way when it should have been to you but he let far more go for Salford. If players can't conduct themselves properly on the pitch then they are going to get penalised. I think the ref was trying to right the wrongs he made in last weeks CCFinal. i.e. he was going to miss nothing. Unfortunately he did.

It looked as though your new coach is trying to introduce a similar style of play to Wigan but with less effect because of the lack of discipline. Think Bentham had to tell your captain 3 times about interference at the play the ball, off side and head shots.

It was a scrappy game, with lots of scrums and penalty's, something Bentham was famous for 2 seasons ago.

Scotty Moore should bring a bit more skill to your pack when he plays for the Reds next season.

You are in denial Agent Mulder or this post is a tongue in cheek joke I can't decide which. None of the Salford fans deny that we break the rules. However, if you coldly and without club bias analyse SL games over the course of the season you will see that all teams are guilty of the same offences in all games. We are not saying that he should not have penalised salford for their rule breaking but by the same token he should also have penalised Saints for the same things. A fair minded supporter would be able to see that!!! You cannot seriously be saying that your team never hold down, lie off-side or tackle high now are you???



If ill-discipline is getting caught then yes we are guilty!! But I would define it as rule breaking which as illustrated all teams do! When one team is caught and the other is not that is when you get problems like last night. Please show some understanding of the situation and think back to a time when you felt that your team were penalised when the other team were not for the same stuff. Then think about that happening every week regardless of the opposition and you are getting close to how us Salford fans feel.

We need to milk the penalties more to actually get them. Other teams get away with messing around at the play the ball because we never use the tactic of wriggling around to make it look like we're being held down. Another one is the tactic of falling into or literally lying across the tackler as we're trying to get to get up and play the ball to make it look like the player is being interfered with. I'm sure teams are coached to do it because the cheap tactic seems to work week in week out against us but we never seem to employ it.