On the face of it, Salford haven't enjoyed the brightest start to the 2021 season, picking up just one win in Super League and exiting the Challenge Cup at the quarter-final stage.
Defeat to St Helens without troubling the scorers on Monday evening caused further consternation among some Red Devils fans, concerned that the transition from Ian Watson to Richard Marshall hasn't been as smooth as would have been hoped.
But it was never going to be easy to replace a man who had overseen the arrival of every member of the squad and had helped to steer the club through extreme financial difficulties to appearances in the Grand Final and Challenge Cup Final in consecutive seasons.
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