Salford City through to FA Cup first round

Credit: Matt Roberts @atwmroberts

Salford City’s FA Cup dream continued with progression to the First Round proper after a 2-1 away win at Marine.

It is only the second time The Ammies have progressed this far in the world’s oldest Football competition after their historic route to the second round in 2015/16.

Goals from Danny Whitehead and Rory Gaffney proved too much for Neil Young’s side, despite a well taken goal from Danny Mitchley.

Salford will find out their opposition for the first round during tonight’s draw, where they could face a team from League One or Two.

Salford City began the brighter of the two sides with Tom Walker forcing martin Fearon into an important save at his near post.

Into the next round of 3️⃣ cups! ?

Emirates FA Cup ✅
MFA Women’s Challenge Cup ✅
FA Youth Cup ✅ #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/WHeX1dbWEW

— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) October 22, 2018

Salford’s early dominance paid off when Danny Whitehead put the Ammies ahead with a smart finish from the edge of the box on 40 minutes.

However, the Northern Premier League side didn’t lie down and were level shortly after the break; Danny Mitchley needing just one touch to lift the ball over the onrushing keeper Chris Neal.

Despite the equaliser, Salford’s quality shone through and eight minutes later, they retook the lead when Tom Walker’s cross was headed across goal by Danny Lloyd for Rory Gaffney to tap home.

Salford City continued to dominate and Gaffney came close to doubling Salford’s lead and his tally when his header was smartly saved by Marine goalkeeper Martin Fearon. Fearon was again called into action to deny Adam Rooney’s header.

Marine continued to push for an equaliser, but Salford were too smart on the counter attack for them and late on, Gaffney missed another chance to get his second when he failed to divert Danny Lloyd’s cross from close range.

Salford City could bring a range of higher division teams back to Moor Lane

Speaking to the club’s official YouTube channel, Salford City manager Graham Alexander has praised his players for a professional perofmance.

“They were good goals from us, we’re obviously disappointed to concede ourselves but I thought it was a good cup tie, I thought it was played in the right spirit, I thought it was very competitive from both teams which you’d expect.

“The job today was to get through to the next round and we’ve done that, so we’re really pleased with that, we wanted to be in that draw on Monday so we’re delighted!

“These games, if you don’t approach them in the right way, they can be very difficult and you can get turned over but I’m very pleased with the players, they did enough to win the game today and deservedly so in the end.”

Salford City will be ball 59 in tonight’s FA Cup draw and have the chance to face teams with a prestigious history in this competition such as two time winners Sunderland.

Team Lineups:

Marine: FEARON, STRICKLAND (13’ SHORT), JOYCE, SHAW, DOYLE, DAVIES, SINCLAIR-SMITH (45’ KINSELLA), HYNES, MITCHLEY, SANG, MURRAY (58’ MARSDEN)

Salford City: NEAL, WISEMAN, TOURAY, HOGAN, PIERGIANNI, MAYNARD, ROONEY, LLOYD, WALKER (78’ RODNEY), WHITEHEAD (90’ ASKEW), GAFFNEY