Agar demanding struggling Trinity improve in front of Belle Vue fans

Some promising signs of improvement from Trinity have been dampened recently and the visit of Salford City Reds is seen as a chance to kick-start their faltering campaign.

An impressive victory over Catalan Dragons has been followed by four successive defeats and, on each of those occasions, Trinity have conceded more than 30 points. A case in point was last week’s Challenge Cup exit at Leeds Rhinos when Wakefield produced some real attacking quality to lead early in the second half only to fall away badly and crash out 38-18.

“We’ve proved for long periods that when we’re working hard and doing things right we’re really competitive,” Agar said.

“But there’s no doubt we’ve slipped away from that recently.

“We let ourselves down defensively in that second period against Leeds and the focus ahead of Salford is improving that aspect of our performance.

“If we don’t we’ll continue to not give ourselves a chance for victory. We’ve had a good response from players in training and, importantly, we’ve got an eight-day turnaround this week.

“The last four games came thick and fast but they should be refreshed now.

“They know we’re not going to go through this season without having periods where we will be tested but they also realise they have to help themselves.

“They are aware of the importance of this Salford game, in front of our own fans, in making those improvements.”

Castleford Tigers have lost Richie Owen to a groin injury and see Rangi Chase start a three-game ban when they visit Warrington tomorrow.