GIANTS coach Nathan Brown believes his players’ mental attitude rather than team selection was at the heart of his side’s bitterly disappointing 30-18 Super League defeat at struggling Salford.
Several of his senior players sat out the clash yesterday’s after they had starred in Friday’s big home win over Catalans Dragons.
But even though Brown could have risked playing Brett Hodgson, Eorl Crabtree, Lee Gilmour and Keith Mason if necessary, the Galpharm chief felt their absence wasn’t the chief reason for a fourth defeat of the season.
“A few could have played, but it’s a long season and there are two competitions to go for and we would like to do well in them,” he explained.
“If I had my time again I would have selected the same team, because I didn’t think that was the problem. The problem was that we weren’t at the races from the start.
“Salford are a hard team to beat and maybe some of our players did not give them the credit they deserve.
“We aim was to come here and grind out a win, not play touch and pass footy from the start and just expect to turn up and win.
“When the opposition kick-off in the second half and score straight from it, those are signs that maybe we just weren’t hungry enough.
“We will have learned a lot from this. There was always going to be an upset over the Easter weekend – unfortunately it was us.
“I want to see a response at home to Castleford on Friday.”
