“I was confident we would go on to win the game”: Ammies suffer huge blow in 4-1 defeat to Carlisle United as pressure builds on Salford City manager

Yesterday Salford City suffered a damaging 4-1 defeat to promotion rivals, Carlisle United, continuing their poor run of form.

Going into the clash, Salford manager Neil Wood made five changes to his side, with the team seemingly looking to have more men in the forward areas, including the return of target man, Matt Smith.

For the Ammies, the game was huge, with a chance to move above the Cumbrian side and get back into winning ways, but with five games without a goal, it would always be a challenge.

The game got off to the worst possible start for the home side, with Carlisle striker, Kristian Dennis, getting his 11th goal of the season, after some poor goalkeeping from Tom King.

In the early moments, Salford looked shakey, with many sloppy passes and lazy tackles.

In the 17th minute, Carlisle suffered an injury to their Captain and star defender, Morgan Feeney, which was undoubtedly a boost for City.

Shortly after, Salford had a good chance, with Brighton loanee Lorent Tolaj coming close, but his shot was parried away by the 6ft 9 frame of Carlisle goalkeeper Tomas Holy.

Some spells of creative quality from City’s number 6, Elliot Watt, unlocked the Cumbrian door on a couple of occasions, creating a few more chances before the break. However, the score remained 1-0 at the interval.

A rip-roaring start to the second half by the home side saw their five-game goalless streak end through a simple finish by Matt Smith meeting Salford captain Ibou Touray’s delightful cross.

Neil Wood brought Smith into the side for the fixture and spoke to us after the game about why he went with that front line.

“We had Callum Hendry just in behind Matt Smith, and we had Odin Bailey and Lorent Tolaj across the top line, so we went with a front three, and we’ve done it a few times this season as we wanted to get more width higher up the pitch so we could play in behind a bit more.”

The goal had lifted the atmosphere, momentum was with the men in red and losing the game did not seem on the cards for Salford. 

The home side continued building, but no clear-cut chances came to fruition for the men in red.

After comfortably holding the game to a stalemate for 20 minutes into the second half, Carlisle sprung their trap and countered with numbers, catching the home side’s defence sleeping. 

A scramble in the box led to the ball bouncing and falling to Carlisle United’s number 8, Callum Guy, drilling the ball into Tom King’s net, sending Salford behind for the second time.

The Cumbrian fans roared in celebration, with their players running right up to the away stand.

It was clear for everyone to see around the Peninsula that Salford players’ heads had dropped and were looking defeated in the eye before the turn of the 70th minute. It was the definition of a team low on confidence.

Moments later, in the 72nd minute, Carlisle number 15, Taylor Charters, whipped in a delightful corner to substitute Corey Whelan, who was left unmarked at the back post and powerfully headed it home.

With 15 minutes to go, Salford’s game plan had evolved into keeping it tight at the back and not allowing the game to be more of an embarrassing result than it was already looming to be.

Carlise’s first goalscorer of the evening, Kristian Dennis wrapped up the damaging defeat for the Ammies. A deflected cross into the box led to a simple finish for the Mancunian, making the score 4-1.

The celebrations in one end of the stadium couldn’t have contrasted greater with the home fans flooding out around the rest of the Peninsula, going home understandably frustrated.

After the game, Salford manager, Neil Wood, said: “It was a poor start, we switched off. There was a lack of concentration at the start and then I thought we put a lot of pressure on them in the first half and we had some good spells and their keeper made two or three good saves stopping our chances.

“We knew we had to come out confident in the second [half], we knew if we scored a goal early enough then we could go on to win the game and we did that. We scored a good goal and I think at 1-1 we were confident we could go on to win the game.”

From getting the score level, things looked to be changing for Salford City. However, their poor streak continues, and pressure most certainly is pilling upon the shoulders of head coach Neil Wood.