Marcus Braddock looks ahead to the Emirates FA Cup replay
Tonight sees us replay Salford after drawing at Montgomery Waters Meadow in the Emirates FA Cup first round. They're the glamour club in the National League because of their connection with Manchester United stars Ryan Giggs. Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers who all own 10% of the club each. In the four years since they bought into the club, Salford have enjoyed three promotions and look to be eyeing up a fourth with the Ammies sitting pretty in 2nd place in the National League. Salford hasn’t lost a league game at home all season and since playing us they've beaten Aldershot 4-0 at home.
Top Scorers
In Adam Rooney and Rory Gaffney, Salford have two strikers who could easily be playing their football at a higher level. Rooney has scored 16 times in 21 matches this season including two hat-trick's away at Dover and Aldershot last weekend. Rory Gaffney has scored eight times in 21 games. Twenty-two year old Thomas Walker is just behind Gaffney with five goals from midfield so far this season.
Clean Sheets
Three from home games and four from away games. Salford's last clean sheet was at the weekend in their 4-0 home win against Aldershot.
We Meet Again
It's been a while since Chris Neal played for us but in his last season with us (11/12) he helped us win promotion as part of Graham Turners team. Since then, he's played for Port Vale, helping them to promotion in his first season and although injuries limited his appearances for Vale, he ended up playing 138 games in all competitions before leaving for Fleetwood in July 2016. He spent a couple of years with the Trawler Men but appearances were limited because of the form of Alex Cairns and he left at the end of last season to Join Salford.
Team News
Shaun Whalley is still side lined with a calf injury.
Summary
Salford have played just once since we met at Montgomery Waters Meadow just over a week ago but it was a comprehensive win against Aldershot who are currently 15th in the National League. We parted company with our manager after we last played and have won the two games since then so confidence should be pretty high in both dressing rooms.
COYB!!!