Ian Watson believes Salford Red Devils will draw confidence from their first defeat in nine games when they face Castleford Tigers in Thursday's Super League eliminator.
The Red Devils were beaten 18-12 away to Wigan Warriors in the qualifying play-off, but have another chance to progress at home to Castleford by virtue of finishing third.
Despite their eight-game winning run coming to an end, Salford head coach Watson was encouraged by what he saw against Wigan and is confident his side will learn from the errors which the hosts punished.
"It's good that we finished third," he said. "We didn't speak about that in the week, but we will go against Castleford really confident.
"We probably lost the game on the back of our errors. The effort was outstanding and I thought it was a great game which was won and lost on little errors.
"I'm really proud of their efforts, but we need to be a bit smarter and we will learn from that."
Watson was disappointed with a late challenge by Wigan prop Tony Clubb on Jackson Hastings as he went over for his try.
He also believes the judiciary may need to examine how the Australian playmaker sustained an eye injury during another clash with Clubb.
"It was an incident off the ball," Watson said. "He kind of whacked his hand across him. It's another one for the officials."