WIDNES boss Denis Betts has revealed his anger at the attitude his team took into the 24-10 loss to Salford on Sunday.

The Vikings could have made mathematically certain of a Super League place for 2016 with a win but were outfought by a physical Red Devils outfit at the Select Security Stadium.

No less than four players - Chris Clarkson, Kevin Brown, Chris Dean and Danny Craven - left the field with head knocks during the game but Betts is refusing to blame any underhand tactics by the opposition.

He said: "Salford came to rumble, they came to fight. We didn't. You come to fight and you don't get hurt as much.

"Every time we come out to play hard we don't get hurt as much.

"We got knocked about, we had players leaving the field and we've got sore bodies now. We didn't come to play.

"That's the top and bottom of it. It's got nothing to do with how we got hit or any kind of foul play.

"We played soft and you end up getting bangs and bumps.

"That's just an attitudinal thing. We went into the game without the right attitude and it took us until just after half-time to find it.

"It's been there all year and that was the biggest disappointment for me.

"I'm still pretty angry with (the players) and I haven't been all year.

"I've been disappointed with some results but I've never been disappointed with our attitude - that's always been fist class.

"We knew what was coming from Salford; they didn't do anything we didn't think they'd do. But they still managed to get over the top of us."

In a fiery contest, Widnes also had skipper Kevin Brown sent off along with Salford's Josh Griffin for a late scuffle.

The Red Devils also had two other players - Liam Hood and Harrison Hansen - sin-binned for foul play but Betts is refusing to look towards the officials for any excuses.

He added: "You can blame the referee for certain things. He didn't have the best of games but he wasn't at fault for us losing the game.

"We were at fault for us losing the game.

"We conceded a try from dummy-half which was soft. We were mentally soft and that's not been us for the last couple of months.

"Knowing with our points difference we were probably safe and having worked so hard to get there, maybe everybody stepped back a little bit because of the relief.

"It didn't feel like that in the week building up to the game. Maybe it crept in and I have to takes some responsibility for that."

The Vikings final game of The Qualifiers, and indeed of the season, is against Leigh Centurions on Sunday.

Betts is hopeful that the players who took knocks on Sunday will be fit to play though Clarkson is certainly doubtful having broken his nose.

Second row Danny Galea may come into contention if his calf strain responds to treatment while Brown is available having taken an Early Guilty Plea at the disciplinary this week..