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It'll be a different story in the play-offs
28/ 8/2008
MALCOLM ALKER COLUMN: "WE may have lost the battle at Celtic on Saturday but I don’t think that we will lose the war. We play the Crusaders again in the Grand Final Eliminator in a couple of weeks and they will find us a much tougher proposition on that occasion.
Some people may think that Celtic will have a psychological advantage going into the big game having defeated us on Saturday. But no one should read too much into that match for a number of reasons.
I don’t like to make excuses and we certainly didn’t want to lose the game. But there is no doubt that it was a much more important game for Celtic than it was for us. They needed to win to be certain of finishing second and having a much easier route to the Grand Final. But for us, it was a dead game as we had already secured top spot and home advantage in the play-offs.
Another big factor was the fact that we travelled to Bridgend on the day of the game. Travelling for six hours and then being expected to get off a coach and go straight out to play is a lot to ask, especially when you suffer from a bit of travel sickness like me and some of the other Salford players. It is much better to make such a long journey the day before the game and stay over night, like we did when we beat Celtic in the Northern Rail Cup semi-finals.
The travelling certainly had an effect in the game as we didn’t play with as much energy as usual. We were very one-paced and lots of Salford players were guilty of having an off-game. But we still only lost the match by 10 points and we bombed at least three tries. If we had taken our chances we would have won the game despite the lacklustre performance. And the way I look at it, it is better to play badly now than in the play-offs.
Hopefully, we have got our bad performance out of the way now and I can see us really kicking on in the play-offs. We have to wait two weeks for our play-off campaign to start and the break is certainly a welcome one as far as us Salford players are concerned. We have not had many weeks without a game this season and the break will do us the world of good. We will recharge our batteries and then go at Celtic at full pelt.
I am sure it will be a cracking game, as will the Challenge Cup final between St Helens and Hull FC at the weekend. Hull upset the odds to beat Leeds in the cup final a couple of years ago but I can’t see them repeating the trick on Saturday. Hull have struggled this season and I think Saints will be too good for them."
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