Brian McDermott has urged both his Harlequins RL side and their fans to cast aside the disappointment of falling to the foot of the Super League table when they welcome Huddersfield Giants this weekend.

Quins hit rock-bottom after a 26-22 home defeat to the previously winless Salford City Reds on Sunday, despite holding an 18-4 lead after 50 minutes.

But McDermott insists now is not the time for blame and recriminations.

He said: “I know people will look at the score and see we lost at home to Salford and be negative about it but we cannot afford for that to happen.

“It was not a case of us throwing the game away or anything like that.

“Salford just got hold of the game with their kicking tactics in the second half and we just could not get away from our line.

“We did make some wrong decisions in the second half but we must not dwell on that.

“I’m not going to dig too deep into the reasons for us losing as we need to look forward, not backwards.”

The Londoners produced an encouraging, if not spectacular opening to the game with tries from Danny Orr, Karl Temata and Lamont Bryan opening up a healthy lead.

But with both Jason Golden and Temata departing injured Quins were ran ragged in the final 30 minutes, leaving Ben Jones-Bishop’s late score a mere consolation.

McDermott added: “We know we are stretched and we know we are missing some important players.

“But that does not mean we should accept losing games.

“You look at our back line out there - players like Jamie O’Callaghan, Will Sharp, Tony Clubb and Ben Jones-Bishop and there is about 50-odd Super League games between them.

“That is a fact and we have to just keep working hard and learning game by game.”

Harlequins RL’s next three matches: Mar 20 Huddersfield (h), 26 Bradford (a), Apr 2 Crusaders (a)