A string of great saves from veteran keeper Jamie Jones kept Salford in the game enough to secure a point away at Tranmere.
The game was there to win for the hosts as they supplied the majority of the chances over the course of the match.
Omari Patrick was their point of difference, the energetic attacker came close in the 28th minute with a low drilled shot that glided by the far right corner of the goal, but he failed to continue his goalscoring form from this season.
Much of this was down to the goalkeeping exploits of Jones, described by Salford manager Karl Robinson as “half saves that were hit right at him, that you would expect [him] to make.”
Despite Robinson’s comments, those saves kept Salford in contention for the rest of the game and allowed them to take a point home with them.
Looking to bounce back from last weekend’s defeat against Walsall, Salford City made four changes, with Ben Woodburn being the only player to make the bench from those dropped.
Ryan Watson came in his place but only lasted 12 minutes before pulling up due to injury and was replaced by Francis Okoronkwo.
The Everton loanee was brought in to play centre forward alongside Kouassi, with Conor McAleny dropping into the 10 position.
Kelly Nmai and Haji Mnoga were drafted into the starting eleven, the two occupied each side at wing-back and put in hearty performances.
Going into the match, both sets of fans wouldn’t have been crazy to expect an interesting contest between the two, after 13 goals coming in the fixture last season.
However, nothing could separate the two teams on Merseyside tonight.
The best chance of the first half fell to Conor McAleny who guided a hard driven cross from Kouassi to the near post of Luke McGee, who got down well to deny the Ammies an early opener.
Other than that early opportunity, it was a quiet half from the visitors’ perspective who spent most of the half keeping Tranmere out.
A Tranmere ball assistant provided a bizarre moment when he decided to collect the ball before it had fully gone out of play.
Confusion ensued but it was called a drop ball and Luke Norris put it out for a goal kick.
Chances came and went into the second half, the bulk of them fell to Tranmere’s sole goal scorer this season Patrick, who failed to convert.
Patrick almost turned provider when freshly substituted Josh Davison failed to get a solid enough of a connection on the end of a lowly driven cross by the in-form man.
Another injury for Salford came in the form of Haji Mnoga, who had been playing a good game up until this point, he was replaced by Osasma Ashley at right wing-back.
🗣️ “A tremendous fighting performance”
Karl Robinson’s thoughts after his side earned a point away at Tranmere.#TRNSAL
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) September 27, 2024
Although there were no mentions of injury updates from the Salford manager, Robinson discussed unity within this new squad; “We’ve been working around the clock, the fans really care, the players care and the ownership cares.”
“We know we aren’t [where] we want to be eventually… we’ve had issues behind the scenes, that are out of people’s control, but we just rolled up our sleeves and just confronted it.”
“Coming to Tranmere on a Friday night, yeah it wasn’t nice at times, but when we settled into the game we played [well].”
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