Salford City secured their first ever away victory in the Football League with a conclusive 3-0 despatching of Walsall at the Banks’s Stadium – ending a run of five games without a win on their travels.
The Ammies, who changed formation from Manager Graham Alexander’s trusted 5-3-2 to a balanced 4-4-2 ahead of the fixture, started firmly in the ascendency with forwards Luke Armstrong and Adam Rooney both going close in the opening five minutes.
First away win in the @EFL ✅
Three goals ✅
Clean sheet ✅#WeAreSalford ?? pic.twitter.com/BtqJnANFrE— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) October 5, 2019
Despite such a barren run of form on the road, Salford haveled in four of their five away games prior to the tie, and history repeated itself when their positive start was rewarded inside 21 minutes.
New addition Craig Conway – who was announced before kick-off – revealed himself to the Ammies faithful in impressive style; his dogged determination paid off as he teed up Armstrong to slot home his first goal for the club.
? Luke Armstrong with his first goal for Salford!#WeAreSalford ?? pic.twitter.com/4BOOEIyJVN
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) October 5, 2019
Ibou Touray’s crucial intervention prevented a certain equaliser before the interval as the away side weathered the Walsall storm – the latter a revitalised outfit who entered the fixture in the midst of a four-match winning run.
A buoyed Salford rallied to further their advantage inside five minutes of the restart; Jake Jervis – also opening his account for the club – calmly converting on the rebound after Saddlers’ stopper Luke Roberts parried Armstrong’s powerful effort.
With a sting in their tail, The Ammies looked to confirm their first ever away win since promotion to League Two with Jervis first forcing a smart save from Roberts, then Armstrong having a goal controversially ruled out.
Walsall responded with Josh Gordon’s speculative effort crashing off the woodwork, but Salford tightened their grasp shortly after. Touray proved his effectiveness at the opposite end, cleanly rifling home from outside the area to send the 218 travelling Ammies faithful into raptures.
View this post on Instagram
Salford City 3-0 Walsall FC (Sky Bet League Two) . #salford #salfordcity #wearesalford #scfc #ammies
A beaming Graham Alexander said:
“There’s things we can always improve on but it’s a performance that gave great credit to the players’ mentality. We played really well in spells, managed our game much better, had good quality up front across those positions to create the chances and take the chances, and a clean sheet is always welcome too.
“Coming into this game, following on our previous results, against a team that’s really in form, [it’s] every credit to the players. I thought they were excellent, and we just need to follow it up now.
“The reaction, the composure and the mentality considering the last two results – it’s hard to keep your thoughts, keep your composure, keep your game plan in place when you’ve come off the back of those games and they were real tough results to take.
“But as I said the other day, we’ve tried a long-term approach with the players and we want to build on that, but we’ve got to think about the long term for this club. I took stock earlier in the week about where we were, we just come into the Football League and it (this result) is a great building block for the future.
“It was just good to see the players making good decisions, trusting each other with the ball, and when it came down to defending the goal they did it exceptionally well. But like I say, we want to settle everything down, decide on a way of playing and give the players the best chance to play well.”
You can watch the extended highlights here:
Recent Comments