Salford Red Devils head coach Paul Rowley has spoken on his side’s inability to set goals and their constant underdog status in 2025, explaining that they’ll once again be the underdog against Castleford Tigers today.
The Red Devils travel to the Jungle for a second time this season with Salford losing the first game 22-14 and Rowley has reflected on that game, but admitted that his side has changed so much since then that little context can be taken.
One thing he did concede is that Danny McGuire’s side will be targeting the Red Devils with Cas looking to register just their third win of the season and hoping to pile the points on against a Salford side who have conceded an average of 39 points per game.
Speaking mid-week, Rowley said: “Castleford, as everybody else, this is a game that they’ll be targeting as a game where they’ll see themselves picking points up, and understandably so.
“Every week’s tough for everybody, but for us in particular, as you know, it’s difficult. We’ll be facing a motivated Castleford, that’s for sure.”
“Every week is tough” – Salford Red Devils boss on bleak 2025
Despite winning just once in 2025, Rowley insisted that the club still want to be competing though that is something far easier said than done.
“Every week’s tough for us,” he explained.
“Every week now, we certainly are the underdog and this week will be no different. So we just need to perform and then everything else will look after itself.”
On that Round Four clash, he said: “I think it was 20 points to 12, (22-14) but we weren’t good in that game, so we would want to improve on that. But again, I think our picture has changed that much week by week that the team will be completely different than the one that lined up last time.
“We had a lot of factors that was disrupting that day, so hopefully this day will be less disruptive on our part and regardless of who our players are, that we can, you know, go in with a team that is committed, connected and feeling privileged and proud to represent Salford. That’s the main thing.
“I feel like we’re in that kind of position at the minute and like I said before, now it’s our job to try and improve our performances as a group, just try and take some steps forward.”
“No goals” – Rowley calls on Salford to “control the controllables”
Even more disruption has come this week with Salford City Council putting an end to any hope of the club’s ownership buying their stadium, whilst HMRC have reportedly filed a winding-up petition as well.
That fed into what Rowley said about goals, insisting the club simply don’t have any because of how much the situation changes week on week.
When asked, he said: “No goals. I think control the controllables. So when the picture changes as frequently as it has done, then it’s very hard to set goals.
“What we set back in training, in pre-season, would be different now. One thing we’ve always done since I’ve been in charge here is have clarity in what we talk about, have honesty and be realistic about everything. So we’re not setting goals, that’s for sure.
“When you’ve not got inconsistency, goal setting will set you up for a fall so I think our first thing would be to be consistent within the club and once we’ve got consistency then we can map a route forward and a succession plan on and off the field.”
The Red Devils take on the Tigers at 5:30 pm tonight.
It’s 𝙂𝘼𝙈𝙀 𝘿𝘼𝙔 👹
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🏟️ The Jungle
⏰ 5:30pm pic.twitter.com/fOnIETJlhJ— Salford Red Devils 👹 (@SalfordDevils) May 18, 2025
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