Brian Noble: Salford City Reds need to raise standards

Brian Noble says it is unrealistic for people to expect his Salford side to be challenging for trophies imminently.

Super League's bottom club go into their Challenge Cup tie at holders Warrington on Sunday as huge underdogs.

"Standards need raising throughout the club and talking about [winning] Challenge Cups and Super Leagues is way off the mark," said Noble.

"But you never know your luck. The great thing about our game is that you can cause surprises."

Salford, backed by multi-millionaire owner Dr Marwan Koukash, have made no secret of their desire to become a major rugby league force in the next few seasons.

But Noble, who was appointed as the club's new head coach in April, has warned that there is plenty of work to do before the Reds can consider challenging for honours.

To illustrate the point, Noble's side lost 46-6 at Super League leaders Wigan Warriors in their last outing and have won just three of their 14 league matches in 2013.

But the former Great Britain coach wants his team to embrace the challenge of facing the top clubs in England.

He told BBC Radio Manchester: "I get excited by going to the Halliwell Jones [Warrington's home ground].

"I got excited by going to [Wigan's] DW Stadium. Our players have to learn about that kind of experience.

"Some of them are still caught like rabbits in the headlights. We have a lot of young, inexperienced people in there who haven't quite coped with it well enough.

"Warrington are very good and I think they're finding their feet after what was, for them, a bit of a rocky few weeks.

"I'm not daunted by the prospect of facing them. Let's see if we can put a plan in place that can trouble them."