After watching the game again this morning, sorry to burst your bubble, but the referee got pretty much everything the one I will give you is when the player passed the ball from the ground, it doesn't look like the ball carrying arm hit the floor and i said as much last night!

the back to back set at the end was spot on! Blame the referee as much as you'd like, at the end of the day, he didn't fall for Casey McGuires dummy at the end of the game.

It was a game that you could and quite possibly should have won, but indiscipline and inability to control the ball cost you in the second half!

The more I watch this game, the more baffled I become about the standard of refeering.

Last night at the Catalan game on a few occasions the cry "you bent bar steward" rang out after yet another puzzling (i.e. wrong) decision - but do we really think the refs are bent? Being intimidated? Taking back handers? Just incompetant?

I think the real answer is rather more subtle and here's my thesis.

Ultimately anyone participating in professional sport wants to appear at the highest level, be they player or official. To get there as a player you must perform and win - quite an easy decision. But, as an official you get picked from a panel of officials for the high profile games, so how do you improve your chances of being picked? I suspect that having fewer bad after match reports are the biggest criteria, but then the reports are made by both teams, so having the fewest complaints from the "most important" teams probably factors highly. Imagine after the game when those at RL HQ are assessing the reports on the ref - the report from Wigan or Leeds or Saints has little to complain, whilst the report from Salford or Celtic has a number of issues - what is the reaction to that? Then reverse it - Saints or Leeds put in a bad report whilst Salford or Celtic say all was OK - does any referee want that to happen?

So there is a subtle pressure on all the officials to minimse the bad reports from the top sides and hey presto we see a performance like Mr Bentham last night - everyone knows that Catalans are the favoured sons of Rugby League - the paymasters of Sky want them to succeed and spread the customer base for subscription TV ever wider - so what we get is an unconscious bias in their favour - note that I'm not in any way imputing that Mr Bentham deliberately threw the game, but that the whole mindset of Rugby League in this country with respect to officiating is not a level playing field.

Something should be done!

The performance last night was at the level i expect from a superleague team, the players looked heartbroken at the end but when they wake up today they should not wallow in self pity, the players showed passion, commitment and brains during that game and should be congratulated for their effort.

Id happyly get beat mostweeks if we competed like that, week in week out for 80 minutes because playing at that level we would have won more games this season.

Thought mcrae's selection policy was bob on tonite, big test for him is next week to lift the players and reproduce the same standard next week with the same group of players as a dont think a change in personel or position will do anygood

As for the players im not going to single out individuals as i think you did your best yesterday it for me was a bit like ''my salford'' i fell in love with snatching defeat from jaws of victory again but as a fan all i want is passion, commitment, brains and a hunger to succeed which i feel i got that so thank you.

Same level of performance next week please and you might be on the right side of the score line next week.

I agree with all of the above, amen that man

re The Optimists post (i still cant get the hang of quoting) Agree with all that you say which is why i felt more gutted than at any defeat this season. Supporting a middle to low ranking side as we do it makes all our wins or triumphs that bit more special. So when we are in a position to win a game of the back of a good 45\50 minutes and then lose...well it stings a little. I know its not our worse defeat of the season in reality but we should have won last night and it is often with the heart that i post after games rather than the head. As you say that effort and skill(first fifty anyway) will do nicely for the final games

Missed my first home game in years in last night due to work commitments. Glad 2 see people praising smith abit, think the player deserves abit of a break as I think hes trying abit 2 hard. Had the last half hour on the radio and jack dearden wasnt happy with the ref either, he interviewed mcrae after the game and started off by saying 'I know you've got to choose your words carefully', Mcrae seemed generally gutted by the defeat and u could tell he wasnt happy with the ref either, but u get used 2 biased refs when ur a reds fan but it still really pi sses me off. For the record i thought barton flyers last post was spot on

For the first time in weeks I came away from a game having enjoyed what I had seen and pleased with the effort the players put in.
Salford should and could have had more points on the board in the first half.
Why didn't Stuart pass it how many times was the wrong option taken when the try line was there ?
Remember that this was a dead rubber for our players, but from the expressions at the end you wouldn't have thought so.
Thats all we ask for effort, pride and if possible good rugby, all were evident last night, and the crowd responded.
I dont know why but I have the feeling that we might just surprise our next three opponents.

Agree but weve been saying this for 10+ years.

Much better all round last night but really feel Myler should have been removed weeks ago.

Offiah not the most unpopular man in Salford but gets into the Final.

We played very well but without the ball you can not play and in the second half we saw very little thanks to many strange decisions from Mr Bentham, and for Stapleton to say something to him at the end just shown how much commitment the team played with to have a half-wit hand the game over. to the lad from France if it would not have been for the ref Catalan would not have been where they were for the last try, I don't thing he checked all night for offside from a kick, even in the first half when Pelo dropped the kick and he knocked it on twice and was not given I knew we would have to work very hard.
I can say that the ref last night clearly influenced the outcome, not once in the second half when we kicked on the last did Catalan have to carry the ball the full length, they were either awarded a penalty to clear the line or a decision to wipe the tackle count was made or their indiscretions went unpunished, these are offically the "dirtiest" team in Super League yet for once they got more penalties in a match than the opposition, says a lot about Bentham.

The last time we won with this clown in the middle was our first match against Catalan out there, he shared the plane back with us, so who upset him?

IF NASH IS THE BEST BENCH FORWARD WEVE GOT ITS GOING TO BE A LONG SLOW DEATH TO THE END OF THE SEASON HES A BIG HITERS BREAM