Watson confident ahead of Cas visit
SALFORD have named an unchanged squad for the visit of Castleford Tigers in tonight’s Betfred Super League knockout semi-final.
That means that talismanic playmaker Jackson Hastings is included, despite concerns over an eye injury picked up during the defeat to Wigan in last week’s Qualifying Final at the DW Stadium.
Hastings has received treatment from a specialist this week after struggling with his vision in the closing stages of the clash with the Warriors, following an incident involving opposition forward Tony Clubb.
However, the Australian playmaker will be desperate to play in what will be his final match at the AJ Bell Stadium as a Salford player, whatever the result.
In addition Jake Bibby, Josh Jones, Geroge Griffin and Logan Tomkins will all be bidding goodbye to their home fans after their departures from the club were confirmed earlier in the year.
Should the Red Devils emerge victorious, they will progress to a Preliminary Final against the loser of the St Helens v Wigan semi-final – meaning they could be heading back to the DW Stadium for another crack at the Warriors, or taking on League Leaders Shield winners Saints at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
Ian Watson said his side’s narrow defeat last week could be attributed to a lack of play-off experience, but he saw lots of positives in how his team performed in what was only the club’s second ever Super League play-off appearance. “We’ve been proud of the players all season,” he said. “We know what they are about as a group, they turn up and compete really hard.
“It was a great performance, a great game. That’s what play-off games are like, they’re won and lost on little errors and little moments in games and that’s what happened.”
Castleford came through an Elimination Final against Challenge Cup winners Warrington Wolves, but picked up a couple of injuries in doing so. As a result, Callum Turner and Salford Red Devil’s Ian Watson England forward Mike McMeeken have dropped out of the squad and are replaced by Nathan Massey and onetime Salford loanee Greg Eden.
“I was fairly confident Castleford would [win against Warrington],” said Watson. “They’ve been playing a tough, play-off football kind of way and they’ve been grinding out results. They’ll be a threat, but we’ve got to be confident in what we can do and if we play like [against Wigan] and with that kind of effort, we’ll be good.”