Shaun McRae was powerless to prevent Salford sliding to another dismal defeat on his return to Knowsley Road as St Helens cantered to a 38-12 victory with a seven-try blitz.

Australian McRae enjoyed a highly successful spell as Saints coach between 1996 and 1998 but he is finding life altogether tougher back in the big time with Salford.

The City Reds were 38-0 behind by the time full-back Karl Fitzpatrick and debutant Andrew Thornley crossed the line in the last 10 minutes to give their supporters reason to cheer.

The scores were deserved as McRae's men never lost heart and actually showed a marked improvement on their woeful showings in their three previous outings.

Yet once again their deficiencies were brutally exposed as Saints ran in first-half tries from Jon Wilkin (two), Leon Pryce and Chris Flannery before Ade Gardner, James Graham and Keiron Cunningham applied further scores after the restart.

Sean Long claimed five goals as Salford headed back down the East Lancs Road on the back of their fourth successive thumping and have now shipped 167 points during that miserable run.

Salford this week responded to that by giving coach McRae a vote of confidence and restoring long-serving hooker Malcolm Alker as captain.

Yet regardless of who wears the armband, Salford remain short in every department and as much was illustrated in the 11th minute.

A simple passing sequence saw Cunningham find Long to his left and the scrum-half's neat offload found Wilkin advancing forward at pace to sidestep Robbie Paul and cross near the left corner.

Long added the extras but Salford began to enjoy a brief purple patch which saw them threaten to breach the St Helens line, Graham making a superb last-ditch tackle to deny Stefan Ratchford just short of the line.

The pendulum quickly swung back in Saints' favour and in the 19th minute another simple move culminated in Cunningham and Long again combining to allow Pryce to scamper over the line from 12 yards out.

Long's second goal made it 12-0 and not even a triple substitution from Salford three minutes later could halt Saints' dominance.

The hosts claimed their third score in the 36th minute when Long's high kick caused confusion in the home defence and Wilkin arrived to touch down.

Long could not add the extras but Saints added a fourth try on the stroke of half-time when Flannery finished off another sweeping move in the left corner for a score which Long again failed to convert.

Salford again battled bravely after the restart and came close to fashioning a try in the 45th minute when a crossfield kick from stand-off Jeremy Smith looked to have found Ratchford in the left corner.

Ratchford made a mess it, however, and St Helens had their fifth score five minutes later when James Roby's blistering run threatened to take him beyond the visitors' last line of defence.

Alker's fine tackle halted his progress but the ball was quickly recycled to the right flank where Long found Gardner and he burrowed his way over for a try which Long converted.

Saints youngster Gary Wheeler had a try ruled out for double movement in the 56th minute but Graham soon squeezed over the line and Cunningham went over from acting half two minutes later.

Long goaled both scores to put Saints 38-0 ahead before Fitzpatrick's 70th-minute score and Thornley's late effort

- both in the left corner and both converted by Ratchford - gave Salford some semblance of respectability.