Salford coach Paul Rowley told Radio Manchester:
“We dipped our toe in the water a little bit for the first 25 minutes, lacked possession and gave them some easy territory. Wigan are a good team obviously, so they capitalised on that.
“The last 15 minutes of the first half we dominated, got really comfortable in the arm-wrestle, and started the second half in the same way, and the game looked all on with the first try of the second half.
“We were comfortable and confident we could pose a threat, and go on to get the win, but Wigan are a championship side, so it wasn’t to be.
“It’s one thing going out there and having a brave performance, and another really having the conviction you can do it. Sometimes you have to take your medicine against a team like Wigan who catch hold of you, and whose objective is to take you back defensively.”
Wigan coach Matt Peet told Radio Manchester:
“Job done. We started pretty well, particularly defensively – Salford are a team who challenge you with the ball, play sideline to sideline and offload, so you have to concentrate and we did that.
“We looked alert early in the game and closed things down, and then put ourselves in a position that when Salford had their purple patch we were probably a few too many scores ahead.
“We defended well through that period and then the weather came in and we managed it OK.
“We’re in a fortunate position to have strong squad depth and that is testament to the work done in the academy.”
